What a headache. Everything around me is spinning and won’t stop. Why do I feel so ill? I guess I’m lying on the floor, but I can’t see a thing. It’s hard to breathe. What’s happening to me? I’ve never taken anything like that before. Wait, what did I take? It had become cold somehow… and I was hungry. Hold on. Something’s wrong with my thoughts. I can’t concentrate on anything.

This went on for quite a long time; okay, maybe not too long, but everything felt very strange. And at some point, I opened my eyes. Everything appeared to be dark gray in color. Cold stones lay inert all over the floor while droplets of water fell from the ceiling, splashing loudly on the surface of the stones. From somewhere off to the side came strange gnashing sounds, and I decided to go over there and look at where they were coming from. As soon as I tried to get up, I tripped on my own legs and fell back down. There were… six of them. Sharp but small. I experienced a vague feeling of wrongness at that. I couldn’t stand up the normal way. It took at least an hour for me to finally learn how to cope a little with my limbs, after which I slowly headed toward the sounds. It was hard to control my legs and my heartbeat was somehow wrong, erratic, while my breathing felt too labored. I kept stumbling as I walked, running out of energy, chest heaving as I fought for air. If I paused to rest for a while, everything became normal, or, well, something close to it at least. Soon enough, I just started counting as I walked: one, and I moved the front legs, two, the rear ones. Using this simple method, I eventually reached my destination. A small pebble was shining on the ground, slightly diluting the black and gray colors of the surrounding space, revealing the silhouettes of two strange creatures in the pitch-black darkness. They were somehow similar to a praying mantis and had six legs, like I did, but the two front ones were slightly different and ended with three claws shaped like fingers. Perhaps they could even hold something with these, unlike me. I looked at my own legs once again and realized that holding anything would be hard for me. They had very refined bodies of a light gray color. Their big eyes seemed as if they were the color of emeralds, but my eyesight, apparently, didn’t allow me to see the color properly, so to me, they were an odd gray. The black, round pupils of the girl focused on me, and after grooming the antennae on her head, she tried to tell me something through her small jaws. Seeing that I didn’t understand her, she straightened her… hair, covering her slightly triangular face and thin neck again, and excitedly turned to a mighty warrior, who was bigger than her and much more powerful. The warrior grinned kindly and made several gestures with his forelegs to calm her down. After some time, the keeper turned to me again, and to my surprise, I found that I was now able to understand her strange speech.

“Do you understand me?” The beetle girl’s eyes were looking at me with pity. “Yes,” I managed to get out in a strangled voice. My throat ached, and my face tightened.

“Calm down,” the warrior put his hand on the keeper’s shoulder. “He just came into the world and cant properly perceive it yet. Remember what the Highest said. His consciousness must stabilize. “

“Do you even know what that means?” she asked, her eyes narrowing.

“No, but it sounds very convincing,” the warrior grinned back at her, which made the keeper sigh deeply.

Cytrilct, level 39

Trirlil, level 37

I saw their names above them and something about levels. All of this was rather strange, and I didn’t understand what was happening at all, but I didn’t feel as if I was in any danger from these creatures. On the contrary, I felt something akin to fondness for them, something warm. My heartbeat was much calmer, and I’d stopped gasping for breath.

“Come here, dear Tesselr,” the beetle girl beckoned to me and I approached her. “Hooray! He understands!” Trirlil jumped with joy, lifting me in her arms, which were hard like stone but still felt a bit warm.

“We had to go through a lot before you finally came into this world, child,” the man said kindly, looking at me and the keeper.

“Tesselr, hide,” Cytrilct suddenly said, after a while. “Trirlil, get behind me. The rippers are coming.”

“For what?” Tears appeared in the girl’s large eyes. “Why are you doing this to us, gods? Tesselr,” her gaze was filled with such sorrow that it made me feel uncomfortable. “Hide and don’t let yourself be killed,” she gently put me back on the ground and pushed me slightly forward.

Soon, strange creatures appeared. Their shells glittered in the bright light coming from the thin sticks. It was hard to look in their direction, but I could clearly make them out before I averted my eyes. These creatures had only four limbs: they walked on two of them, and in the other two, they held sticks with light and strange, sharp claws. One of them shouted something to the others, and after a brief discussion, the trio headed toward us.

“Tesselr, run!” the keeper shouted and almost took a blow from a sharp claw, but the beetle warrior was able to repel it.

The creature jumped aside and turned to its mate.

“That little beetle’s kinda bugged” said another one, pointing at me with a sharp claw. “Gotta do him in.”

One of the two-legged pushed back the beetle warrior with one powerful blow, and the second, twisting its claw around itself, hit both of my parents. Trirlil pressed the stump of her claw to herself, getting covered in a dark red color, which stood out sharply against the gray tones of the rest of the place. The first creature prodded Cytrilct with its claw, but he became furious upon seeing the couple of two-legged trying to kill the keeper and rushed over to help her. He managed to touch his foreleg to the gray head of the monster, and I saw that red color again.

However, what came next horrified me. The enemy struck out so powerfully with its claw that it beheaded the beetle warrior. The other two focused on Trirlil, stabbing their claws into her.

“Run! Tesselr!” her voice was getting quieter. “Run...”

Everything around me turned red, my heart beating with incredible strength. I felt angry, no, I was furious as I saw Trirlil’s eyes glazing over, the same eyes that had looked at me so tenderly a while ago.

“It’s time to finish up, otherwise RL will kick our asses.” The monster said something, all the while sticking its claw into the keeper’s body repeatedly. “For some reason, this buggie isn’t running away,” the monster said in his nasty voice, pulling the claw out of Trirlil’s body. Blood gushed out of the wound, painting everything around it in that damned color.

“Well, he is bugged,” his foul voice sounded again, and I rushed at him, but scarlet splashes struck my eyes, a severe pain pierced my entire body, and then darkness enveloped everything around me.

I don’t know how long I was in the darkness, but at some point, I realized that I was able to open my eyes. Once again, the world was made up entirely of gray tones. There were no monsters in their glittering shells, whereas the bodies of my family still lay side by side, in puddles of red liquid. My heart ached, and I went to them, not knowing what to do. At some point, I just lay down near them and started to think. About ten minutes later, a bright window appeared in front of my eyes. It hurt my eyes to even look at it because it was so bright.

Your status!

Character name: @$##^&@

Race: Monster

Class: -

Level: 0

Experience: 0

Health: 1/1

Energy: 0/0

Do you want to change your name? Yes/No

What is this? Levels and other nonsense again. The name… something unclear was displayed there. No, this isn’t my name. Trirlil called me something else. “Tes Sel Er,” I hissed through my jaws and my throat started aching again.

The character’s name: Tes Sel Er

Okay, what is this level thing? How do I find out? As soon as I thought about it, a hint with some pleasant text came up in front of my eyes:

Your level is the feature that shows the degree of your development