He was... alive? The elemental practically danced with joy as he woke to a crackling fire. He had made it! He would survive... at least until this fire died out as well. Immediately sobered by this realization, he quickly opened his stat page.

Name: N/A

Race: Fire Elemental (Newborn)

Level 5/10

Strength: 1

Vitality: 3

Endurance:2

Agility: 1

Dexterity: 1

Reflex: 2

Intelligence: 4

Wisdom: 2

Willpower:2

HP: 30/30

Mana: 20/20

Stamina: N/A

Trait: Sentient, Hardy, Adaptable

Unallocated Trait points: 1

Skills: Pyromancy

Attributes: Fiery soul, Edge Dancer

Effects: Fiery Soul

Unallocated stat points: 4

He quickly realized that a few changes had occured as he slept. Firstly, He had broken into level five, unlocking two stat points thanks to the adaptable trait. In combination with those left over from level four, he now had four points to place at his leisure. Furthermore, he had also gained another trait point. That would probably be more useful once he invested the stat points.

A more interesting change, however, was the new attribute he had passively gained: Edge Dancer. A quick thought directed at it immediately brought up the corresponding description

Edge Dancer (attribute): You have danced with death...

Unlocked by: Surviving injuries that left you with 1 health point or less than 1% of your total health.

Passive Gains: N/A

Stat Gains: N/A

Ability Gains: Second Wind

Second Wind (passive): Upon taking fatal damage, gain a rapidly decaying shield of Health equal to twice your maximum health. The shield will leave you the health you had before its a activation or one health point, whichever is greater. Decay rate is set to 1.66% of the shield's maximum health per second.

Cooldown: 48 hours

This was.... incredible! The elemental merely stared at his new ability, recognizing just how close to death he had previously gotten. Now; however, he at least had some form of safety net. Some quick math made him realize the shield would only last a maximum of a minute, and that was if he was taking no damage whatsoever. Nonetheless, even with just his current health, he would have an extra fifteen seconds away from a fire.

Thinking of that; however, brought a shiver to his spine. He did not ever want to feel the cold, the agony again. It was too much... Too painful... Reality, he knew would force him out again, but this time he would be far more prepared.

This fire was much weaker than the previous one, unfortunately, but it would do for his purposes. Quickly constraining it like he had done with his first fire, he realized that there was a bright side to its lack of strength: the flame would continue for much longer. Whereas his first fire had exploded outward, fueled by mana, this one merely flickered. As such, even before he constrained it, it likely would have lasted for nearly twice as long as the first.

Secure in the realization that he had a safe haven for the forseeable future, the elemental set about placing his stat points.

Now understanding the way traits were gained, he gave serious thought to placing a casual point into agility, just to quickly unlock the trait. That idea however, was quickly discarded as he thought of his need to find out when a new tier of traits was unlocked, if there even was one. He knew he was walking blindly, but he had to trust his instincts: they were all he had at the moment.

With his decision to find the next tier of traits made, he only had to choose a stat for it. This choice, at least, was an easy one. While vitality could technically be strictly better to invest in, giving him nearly six times the benefits per point as compared to intelligence when the effects of second wind were factored in, he wasn't a masochist. Losing mana constantly was uncomfortable, sure, but it was nowhere near as painful as losing health was. If he found the trait early enough, he could perhaps consider investing in vitality as well, but for now at least, he would place his points into intelligence.

Much to his surprise; however, only one point into distributing them all, a notification appeared.

Congratulations! You have become Clever! By investing into five points of Intelligence, your mind has greatly improved.

Clever (Trait):

Passive gains: Your mind has sharpened, greatly increasing your capacity to focus as well as your general comprehension of new concepts.

Stat gains:

+3 intelligence

+1 Wisdom, +1 Willpower

Ability gains: N/A

With the arrival of the new trait, a sharp, yet brief, pain struck his mind as it rapidly expanded. As it dissipated, the elemental felt as if a cloud was lifted away. His mind moved at double speed, racing from thought to thought as he truly began to work at his problems. Intelligence had been a good choice, he realized, but not for the reason he chose it. This trait was enough to make it worthwhile, but it just didn't do enough for him.

With newfound reason now in control of his decisions, he made a distasteful choice and invested two points into vitality. The benefits were simply too good to pass up upon.

Congratulations! You have become Stalwart! For investing 5 points into vitality, you have become much hardier and resistant to pain.

Stalwart (Trait):

Passive gains: Every point of Vitality grants and extra point of Health. You also gain 25% pain resistance.

Stat gains:

+3 Vitality

+1 Endurance, Reflex

The elemental flared with joy as his essence rapidly expanded. Vitality it seems was also a decisive factor in his size, and five points into really showed a difference. Now, his spherical wispy form was double its former size, reaching approximately halfway to a man's knee. Furthermore, with his new size, the form actually began to stabilize into a humanoid figure. Spindly arms and legs extended from his spherical core, still fragile yet capable of directed motion.

Floating inside his fire, the elemental quickly began to calculate just how far he could travel. Now with a reference point in the spent fuel source behind him, he realized that he could indeed cover a decent amount of ground. In his previous form, it took him eleven seconds to reach his current source and eight seconds to light it aflame. He had only been able to survive that long because he no longer consumed stamina once he arrived at the source. With his new stats, he felt fairly confident in his ability to reach the next source. Not even considering Second Wind, he had about 42 seconds of free motion: more than enough time to reach the third source, which was actually closer to him now than the first source was.

Furthermore, he still had a stat point to allocate. Before he could simply place it into vitality like the last two; however, he was interrupted by the arrival of a new complication.

It was a fuel source... but it was moving? This source came from the far side of the tunnel, approaching the first, spent source. At first, the elemental could only see it's mana, crawling along the floor much like he had. He watched intrigued as it slowly made its way into the firelight.

It was strange, very different from his sources in more than just the fact that it was moving. Firstly, like him it seemed to be made of mana, rather than just having it woven into its being. Unlike him; however, its mana did not burn to give rise to a fiery form. Instead it seemed to be some liquid, surrounding a solid core of mana at its center. Its movement was also strange. Instead of merely floating, or flowing, to its destination, it seemed to ooze forward first throwing out an extension before pulling itself forward.

The elemental decided that this was clearly neither him, nor one of his normal sources. Perhaps it could become food; however. There was only one more source available after his current one was consumed. After that third one was gone as well... He shuddered slightly. Even though he had somewhat stabilized, his position was still rather precarious. As such, he watched the creature carefully as it approached the first source.

At first, it seemed rather hesitant to approach, but after a moment's pause it leaped onto the remains. The elemental watched, fascinated as it devoured the remaining ash and mana from the first source. This creature really was interesting!

It took mere minutes for the creature to dissolve the remains, leaving nothing behind. Then, it began to make its way towards the elemental.

This gave him a moment's pause. He had just seen it devour an entire source in a tenth the time it took his fires to do so. Would it be a danger to him? Unsure of what an appropriate reaction would be, the elemental released some of his control over the fire letting it blaze taller and brighter. Now he was once again completly shrouded by the flames.

The creature; however, seemed completly uninterested if not afraid of him. Once it was about halfway to him, it stopped and began moving in a diagonal path, skirting around his fire as best it could. This confused the elemental greatly at first. Why would it choose to go around him like that? If it was afraid of fire, why didn't it just turn around. There was nothing on the other side of him. Nothing except...

The realization hit hard. The only difference about the tunnel in the direction the creature was traveling was his third source. He had already seen it seemingly devour the remains of one source. Why wouldn't it be able to consume one he hadn't burned away yet?

Livid with rage, he almost went out to physically attack it himself. Luckily, he just barely managed to stop himself. He had no idea of the creature's capabilities. Perhaps it could devour him like it could sources. Or it could even slow him down long enough for fiery soul to kill him. He had no way of knowing.

Instead, he resolved to take advantage of the one thing he knew about the creature: it disliked fire. Whereas before he had loosened his control over the fire, he now used pyromancy to stoke it, turning the flames into a towering inferno.

The creature noticed immediately, turning around in attempt to make an escape. At that point; however, it was too little, too late. The elemental had decided it was a threat and felt compelled to exterminate it with utmost prejudice. Consuming all his mana, he lashed out, launching a thick lance of flames at the creature.

Now, against most beings, while annoying, this attack would not likely be much of a threat. He was merely throwing fire at them. At worst, it would catch them on fire, but such basic flames could easily be put out by any creature with a speck of magic in its body. His target; however, was a slime. Composed of mana, slimes are difficult to kill with physical blows: Their gel would merely reform around their core, until you managed to crush it completly. Attacks with energy; however, were usually far more effective, having a variety of reactions with the slime's gel. The one element that fared particularly well; however, was fire. You see, fire can burn away mana, it's just another source of energy to a hungry flame. As such, when flames come in contact with a being of pure mana, untainted by any of the elements, the results are rather.... interesting.

The creature exloded.

As the lance came in contact with its outer membrane, the being seemed to bubble furiously before blasting outward in all directions. In its place, all that remained was the round core from its center. The Elemental stared for a moment, astonished at the results of his handiwork, before doing a little dance from joy. He had done it! He had kept his fuel source safe.

As he calmed down from his excitement; however, he realized that he had gone somewhat overboard. The massive lance of fire probably wasn't nescessary. Instead he could have sent out a few weaker attacks, preserving his mana for future fights as well as finding the minimum amount of energy needed to eliminate one of the devourers, as he took to calling them. He decided not to be too harsh on himself; however, even though he'd made a mistake, the accompanying accomplishment was far more important in his eyes.

With the battle, however one-sided it may have been, over, the elemental quickly restrained his fire once again. While it had been useful in the fight, he realized that he used far too much of it. Whereas before he'd had the better part of an hour left in this flame, he could sense that he hardly had twenty minutes. At the rate his mana was regenerating, he should be back to full in just a few minutes, leaving him with another choice to make.

The devourer's core lay there, glinting in the firelight. Now that it was no longer coated in the insulating gel, it shone like a beacon to his mana sensitive eyes. He had no doubt it would provide him with an advantage, at the very least in the form of keeping his fire stoked for a few more minutes. It would cost him mana and experience, as he likely wouldn't be able to get much time in the fire to keep his attribute active, but he decided to risk it. He couldn't exactly lose too much.

Deciding it was better to be safe even as he was gambling, he waited for his mana to fully recover before setting out. With the effects of Fiery Soul, and his general regeneration, it barely took three minutes for him to return to full mana. Wasting no time, he immediately set out towards the core.

The cold buffeted him again, but this time he was stronger. He held himself together as he pushed onward, ignoring the sight of his mana dropping precariously. Fortunately the distance to the core was far shorter than the first journey he had to take as the devourer had just barely been skirting around the fire. Further speeding his journey was his greater size. Now he could cover much greater distances, and with these advantages reaching the core was a breeze. He didn't even reach the halfway point on his mana. Upon arriving at the core; however, he was met with a notification... and a problem.

Congratulations! You have found a Rank F- Monster Core (Slime Core)

Consuming this core will grant you a part of the creature's experience as well as 1 stat point to allocate.

Consumption of the core will take you approximately: 1 minute

The benefits were extraordinary! Experience would help him break through to his next level while the stat point would potentially unlock a new trait! There was just one problem: he didn't have a minute to spend out here. It had already taken him at least five seconds to walk out this way. Even with second wind, the timing would be extremely dangerous. Too dangerous. Waving away the notification, he rushed over to the core and began to push it towards the fire. This idea too had a problem: he couldn't move it. Quickly looking around, he realized it wasn't stuck or blocked by anything, he was just too weak to budge it out of its position.

For a second, he panicked. He wanted the core badly. If he didn't get something out of this trip, it would just be a waste of mana and experience. Those could both spell the difference between life and death to him.

His panic only lasted for one second; however, and his mind cooly reasserted itself. Opening his status page, he placed his last available point into strength. Ignoring the notifications that appeared, he pushed. Lunging forward with all his newfound strength, his limbs took action. His legs dug into the ground for the first time as his arms thrust forward slamming into the core and forcing it to roll away from him... towards the fire.

Ignoring the tinge of pain that appeared as he started digging into health, he buckled down and slammed his shoulder into the core speeding up its roll and forcing it ahead of him. With the core rolling away from him, he merely chased after it nudging it to keep it slowly moving until it finally came to rest against the burning source. Pain striking at his every move, the elemental clambered up into the fire and sat himself down, resting as his health began to slowly climb back up to full.

The pain had been much lesser that time he noted as his mana began to regenerate. He supposed it was the health regeneration doing its job, but he also came up with another potential explanation. In his first run, he only had thirty health points. Losing three a second cost him a full tenth of his life each second as he was moving. Now, losing three or four points a second was about a twentieth or less of his life each second. He assumed that lesser pain, with greater pain resistance added in as well, was the reason he was able to continue so easily without pause. If that was the case... more health would give him more time and less pain.

Then again, if he were to run into more devourers, or slimes as he now knew they were called, additional mana would be incredibly useful. He probably didn't need forty points for each one, yet having more mana would greatly strengthen his ability to control the fires he was in. Furthermore, slimes probably weren't the only things in the world. If something that wasn't afraid of fire came for him.... more health wouldn't exactly help him much. He needed to be able to defend himself.

On that note, he looked back at the notifications he had gained.

Congratulations! You have become Forceful! By investing two points into Strength, you have gained a much stronger physical force.

Forceful (Trait):

Passive Gains: Your form is now far denser, easing interaction with the world around you.

Stat Gains: +1 Strength, Agility, Dexterity

Ability Gains:N/A

The new trait was interesting. Outside the fire, he hadn't had the chance to really look at himself, but it felt about right. He no longer had wispy tendrils coming off of him, instead his body had solidified into his chosen humanoid form. He could still change his shape freely, but didn't really see a point to it. The slime's form really didn't offer the advantages of limbs like the sources' shapes.

Thinking about the slime's form reminded him of the object he had gone out to search for in the first place: the core. Rushing over to it now that he was mostly recovered, he was met with the same notification. This time; however, after making sure he was still in the fire and that it wouldn't go out within a minute, he started the process of consuming the core.

It was... strange for him. As the power contained within the core flowed to him, he saw flashes of the creature's life. The slime had not been sentient, having only one point of intelligence, yet it nonetheless had made some observations about its surroundings. From those observations, the elemental felt great joy and terror. Originally, the slime had been spawned as one of a hundred others. They traveled down the tunnel he was currently in in packs, searching for any scraps of food. Their mind if he could even call it that, was consumed by hunger.

The joy came to him as he learned that at the tunnel's end, there was a place of rest. Beyond the third source of fuel, there was a place where there was fuel aplenty for a fire. A great mass of life that would not hurt him, yet could burn. The slime had seen it happen once. A group of sources had walked into the area and the one at the front had unleashed waves of fire that burned for hours. The elemental practically drooled at the thought of such a place.

The fear; however, was much stronger. There were creatures in this place. Creatures that didn't bother to scavenge in the tunnels like the slimes did. Creatures that had crushed the slimes without a second thought. Some were giants, rising twice the height of the tunnel he was in. Others were small yet swift, snapping out slimes' cores with ease as they sped by them. Most terrifying of all were the elementals. He recognized that they were like him, in a way, but they were very different in all others.

Firstly, none of them held power over fire. They all rose from from the water or the earth of the giant cavern before him. Some even descended from the air itself. They all terrified him. He remembered his races description. Attacks of Earth and water would hurt him doubly, while the beings of the air could blast him straight out of his fire.

What made the situation worse was that they all had the strangeness in them. Like the flames on the walls, their energy seemed... corrupted almost. It certainly seemed unnatural to him at least.

As the last of the slime's core was absorbed he quickly felt the rush leave him, along with most of the memories. They didn't completly disappear; however, instead becoming hazy and almost dreamlike. Most of the finer details were gone, but he still remembered the general gist of what he had learned. Ahead lay great hope and great danger, but it was the only path for him to take.

The mental gains were not the only thing he was left with; however.

Congratulations! You have completly absorbed an F - rank core. You recieve a portion of the experience stored within the creature as well as 1 Unallocated stat point.

Congratulations! You have reached level 6! You have gained one stat point. Due to your adaptable trait, you also gain another stat point.

You still have unallocated stat points from absorbing cores. If you do not direct their placement, they will be placed into random stats upon your next evolution.

You still have unallocated trait points from prior levels. If you do not direct their placement, they will unlock random traits upon your next evolution.

Now with a long-term goal in mind, The elemental quickly dumped his available stat points into intelligence. He had already invested greatly into that path and it seemed that magic was going to be the only way for him to defend himself against the dangers he faced ahead. After investing only two points, a new notification appeared. This time, it was one he had never seen before.

Congratulations! By investing 10 points into intelligence, you have unlocked two paths to follow. Choose carefully, as selecting one path will forever remove the other.

Magus: "Arcane are my ways..."

Many creatures try to live around the world. They react and struggle to make their way from season to season. You know a better way. Through magic you can make the very world bend to your will, if you have the will and dedication to pursue it that is.

Passive gains: +5 mana per point of intelligence, +0.05 mana regen per point of wisdom, +2 points of intelligence per level, +1 point of Wisdom per level.

Stat gains: +3 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom

Ability gains: N/A

Passive losses: -5 Stamina per point of Endurance, -0.025 Stamina Regen per point of Endurance, - 0.5% resistance perpoint of Endurance

Stat losses: N/A

Ability Losses: N/A

Mastermind: "The plans of mice and men may often go awry... but mine never will..."

Just like there are different orders of magnitude in terms of strength and speed, so are there with thought. A mastermind is a genius, peerless. Whereas others struggle to make it through life from day to day, a mastermind has already planned for years in advance.

Passive gains: Drastically improves mental computational speed, Improves your capability to understand gestures, languages, and actions of other beings, Improves tactical sense and situational awareness, +3 points of Intelligence per level.

Stat gains: +5 Intelligence

Ability Gains: Overclock

Passive losses: -4 Mana per point of intelligence, -0.04 mana regen perpoint of wisdom

Stat losses: N/A

Ability Losses: N/A

While the Mastermind was interesting, the choice was ultimately simple. Magus ultimately had no downside, considering Stamina was not a concern for him. It also provided him an immediate burst of extra mana to help him survive for even longer away from flames. Mastermind on the other hand would cripple him almost completly, halving his time away from fire and leaving him with no way to defend himself. The ability was interesting, considering the first one he had recieved, Second wind, was so incredible. Nonetheless, It was too great of a risk for him.

Accepting the Magus path, he quickly felt Massive changes occur within him.

Whereas a burst of vitality had sharply increased his size, The burst of intelligence he recieved Actually condensed more energy within him, making him feel like he had an inferno of barely contained power at his disposal. His own temperature skyrocketed; the fire that made his body also changed color, becoming a much brighter red than it previously was.

A sharp wave of mental changes also occured. While not as significant as those passively gained from a trait, the improvements caused by five points of intelligence were by no means meager. His mind sharpened once more, allowing him to fill out his plans with far greater detail than before.

Opening his status page, he looked over his gains with pride as the fire around him slowly continued to crackle.

Name: N/A (Magus)

Race: Fire Elemental (Newborn)

Level 6/10

Strength: 3

Vitality: 8

Endurance:3

Agility: 2

Dexterity: 2

Reflex: 3

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 5

Willpower:3

HP: 88/88

Mana: 130/130

Stamina: N/A

Trait: Sentient, Hardy, Adaptable, Clever, Stalwart, Forceful

Unallocated Trait points: 1

Skills: Pyromancy

Attributes: Fiery soul, Edge Dancer

Effects: Fiery Soul

Unallocated stat points: 1