Chapter 4 : Everyone Else - Part 1

yO~ guys, sorry for the long hiatus. This chapter was definitely difficult and had to do quite a number of research to write. I didn't have time as well due to many reasons, but I did make it to about half of what I intended to write.

I hope you enjoy reading this.

Thanks for your support.

Chapter 4: Everyone Else

Part -1

"Hey lady!!! I'm bored with hunting these small fries..."

*SMACK*

"Hey lady, watch it...", said the young cub growling at the tigress.

The tigress hearing this put her paw on the head of the cub and pushed him to the ground.

"You should learn your manners son. How many times should I tell you to call me - Mama"

Piff.. Damn AI thinks it's my mother...

"Look at all your brothers and sisters, they all grew up better than you drinking my milk. But, you stubborn little brat, refused to drink ever since you teethed", said the tigress with a tear in her eye while glaring at her cub on the ground.

The cub flushed at these words and growled slowly to resist.

"Now stay quiet or you will scare away the hares again.", she said releasing the cub frowning at him.

"Ok lad...", the tigress pressed the cub harder when she heard him start.

"OK 'Mama', let me go already. I'm hungry..."

"Now Don, get down and as I said before and many more times before that, don't shout when you are sneaking towards your prey..."

"Ok...", said the cub and went into a crouching position from the ground. He moved slowly and entered into the bushes and eyed the group of hares hopping around.

Don approached slowly and lurked behind the bushes slowly without shaking them until he was just a few feet away from the hare. Suddenly the ground started to tremble a bit and the hare hopped away quickly.

"What the hell!!!?", Don said and looked around glaring at the source of the slight tremble of the ground. It was a streak of six young tigers running in his direction. They ran past eyeing him with a scornful look. They all were carrying a piece of meat in their mouths and this left Don's mouth watering.

"Mother, we caught an Ox. We brought it back for you.", said Killah placing the meat before the tigress.

"An Ox, that is amazing. I'm sorry I was not there to see it. You brother Don is.... Don... DON... Come here.", said the tigress towards the drooling cub under the bushes.

"What you want?!!" , he said without taking his eyes off the Ox meat.

"YOU!!!! See your brothers and sisters. They caught an OX!!!. You all were born at the same time and you were born first. Look, LOOK at them!!!, they have grown bigger than you though they are younger than you though only in minutes."

Don sheered away from the other tigers cubs and tried not to remember his starting moments in the game...

****

"NOOOOO.......", was the most prominent word he said as he was born into this world. He fainted with the amount of detail in the game. He felt sticky, he smelled blood mixed with mucus and combined with the sudden coldness that overwhelmed his senses and nerves he fainted.

He then woke up hearing the curious words of other players.

"What the...This is the weirdest game. I feel like puking...UWaaaa"

"Shit, Did I just come out of a...."

"Freaky...."

"Oh my God!!! Oh my God!!! Oh my God!!!..."

"....Strange"

"The miracle of life, amazing..Hey!!! Who are you guys?? I guess this makes us siblings. I'm Sheen."

"Hey, I'm Killah."

"yo, I call myself FunFreak. You can call me Fun, don't call me a Freak though."

Awesome, we got idiots here, thought Don.

"Call me Dread."

"Link here, This is AAWESOMEE!!!"

"...Yohan."

"So finally you big guy. Care to share?", said Sheen turning to Don.

"No...*sigh*, I'm Don.", said Don while still trying to stand up without wobbling his legs. He was near the tigress and she was sleeping after finished cleaning all the cubs by licking them clean.

"Strange, we can see already within an hour. It usually takes over a week in real life for cubs to see. Let's see..mm.. Fun, open your mouth wide. " , said Sheen crawling towards Fun, a tiger cub whose stripes on the tail were making it look like a spring.

"AWWW... 'ow iz dis, iz dis H'kay?", said Fun opening his mouth wide to Sheen.

"Hmm, No teeth yet, but there are small white spots on the gums. This is remarkable, the growth is fast. Thank you Fun, you can close your mouth now."

"Children, I see you introduced yourself. I can't believe my children are the chosen. Well this may be the first, but can you tell me your names?"

"Sheen.", Sheen started.

"Killah"

"Fun"

"Link"

"Dread"

"...Yohan"

"Well little one, hey you... son stop trying to stand. Take a rest, you won't be able to stand for a while until you take some food. So, can you tell me your name?", said the tigress with pride in her eyes.

"Don..."

"Now, Children are you all hungry."

"Yes." and "I suppose so." , responses were given.

Hearing this the Tigress laid on her side facing away from the cubs and showed her belly.

"Drink!", said the tigress.

All the cubs were flabbergasted by the thought and stood still.

"Don't be shy, drink your milk. You won't grow strong unless."

Don seeing this had only one thought in his mind,

Never!!!

**************

Faster, Faster... Faster!!!!!

No no no.. pull up.....!!!! YES!!!!!!!!

Karen had completed her growth two days ago and was kicked out of the nest she had hatched into.

"Get out and quit hogging up space kiddo. Break a wing!!", were the words her so called mother said before kicking out of the nest.

The first thing she did was scoot around for a place to make a nest. She knew she needed one, since she got a quest and a timer along with it.

New Quest:

Find a Nest

You do not have a place to return to. If you don't have a nest, you must take refuge in other territories and you are will be attacked without warning if found.

Find a nest in the next hour.

Caution : The first place you stop at which is not under the control of anyone will be set as your nest.

Reward : Experience and ????

Failure : ???

She flew around for a while and flew across a cliff, but the cliff had a sink and she was unable to climb. She reached half way and stopped to rest on the edge of a loose growing plant. The plant was growing out of a root which had sprung out of the cliff. The root protruded out and split into three and it dug back into the cliff from left, right and bottom making it look like a hawks feet.

The plant grew from the bottom split and it grew up from there towards the light. Karen sat on top of the plant and bending it towards the right split of the root.

Alert :

The spot has been set as your nest. You can always find your way back to the nest. Recovery is increased by 100% when in nest.

OH!!!! I'm stuck in this place as my nest... You did it again bird brain!!!, Karen was pouting as she stood on the root and the plant.

The plant when she stood on it was small about 3/4 feet high, but after being set as the nest, it started to grow roots around first the root the plant had grown out of and it spread around the two openings of the roots towards the left and right. The place where the plant was being pressed against by Karen rolled around the right side of the nest and this startled Karen. She flew up and saw what unfolded before her.

The plant had now curled around between the three sections of the root like a creeper for over 50 times but it felt more stable now. The result of the plants growth created a small 1.5x1.5 feet opening nest on the side of the cliff which was raised at an angle of 45 degrees towards the sky. The plant stopped growing and the edges of the nest had flowers blooming giving off a nice scent.

Beautiful!!!

Karen was marvelled with her unfortunate nest location. The nest looked spacious and the view from the cliff was breathtaking.

Unable to keep flying steadily anymore due to exhaustion from the sinking air at the cliff, she entered her nest and saw that it lacked a door or a closing. Even after she entered the nest the air around was pushing at her. She then decided to find a large leaf to cover off the top of the nest and also something soft to layer the inside of the nest as she was standing on the root and it had irregular and uneven footing, but she was hungry by now.

I need to get something to eat. I will visit 'mom' and ask for more instructions.

Karen stood at the entrance of her nest facing away from the cliff , and turned her neck around to see the surrounding and finally turned her head 250 degrees to check the inside of her nest and dropped.

She was falling at a greater speed due to the sinking wind of the cliff, but she had done this before and turned right towards another hill. She was falling steadily and was only 100 meters away from the ground, if she didn't pull up by now the momentum she had gained will crush her to the ground and kill her, but she maintained her course. Finally reaching near the hill she was only 30 meters from the ground, but she adjusted herself and lifted off due to the updraft of the wind over the hill which propelled and pushed her upwards. She shot out into the sky due to momentum she had gained from falling at high speeds due to the sink.

YEAHH!!!!!!!! I FEEL ALIVE!!!!! I LOVE THIS GAME!!!~~, Karen thought as she was floating slowly over the hills.

***************

"Laina!!!! Will you stop jumping around, I will need to make some clothes from hide for you next. These leaves won't do...", Ken shouted at his sister while swinging across trees averting his eyes quickly forward whenever he turns to looks at her.

"Brother, I don't think anyone cares, thought I don't mind new clothes. ", Laina pouted following him.

"Children, will you calm down. No one will dare to touch you under my watch. Son, stop pampering your sister.", said a large chimpanzee hanging from a tree before the sibling.

"Woah!! Mot..."

***CRASH***

Ken seeing that the mother chimp has stopped to look at the siblings was not able to control his swing to a stop and diverted his weight towards the right to not hit the chimp hanging before him. The diversion had led to him crashing at the tree.

"mm..You need to learn that when you can't stop your swing, climb upwards to shorten the distance of the swing. "

Ken groaning climbed up the tree and saw that his sister had slowed down after seeing him fall. She was trying not to fall as she was laughing her ass off.

"Are you...heehehe... Ok Ken?..teeeHehheheeee", said Laina

Ken frowned at Laina and then turned towards the mother chimp,

"Mother, please don't stop suddenly unless you tell us before hand."

"This is training kiddo and mother would never try to hurt you on purpose. Well except if you go berserk in the community then I would have to kill you, else..", said the chimp without a thought in her mind.

"hmm....Ok. Let's go, I need more training."

The mother chimp turned and started swinging again followed by the two chimp siblings.

The sun was out and they had only about a few hours until rainfall which would make their return route slippery. No one would venture out into the fog which comes next, some creatures would only hunt during the fog if prey entered its territory.

Finally they reached an opening and the mother chimp stopped. As she waited for the following two children chimps, another chimp swung in from the sides and stopped near her.

"Hey Anhae, teaching the children to fish already?"

"hey Rysh, the boy wanted to eat something other than fruit, but I think he only asked for his sister. He's very protective of her. Sweet children. So, where are your children Rysh?"

"They are still at the community, Anhae, Whining lot they are. 'I want this..What is that...'. I'm trying not to kill them myself. " , said Rysh with irritation in her voice.

"Hmm.. mine were the same, but they are more curious. So, what are you doing here?"

"The brats are sleeping for a long time, so I slipped out to stretch and it's been a while since I ate anything other than fruits after the awakening. Might as well bring them something else to eat."

"Anhae your brats are here.", Rysh said and moved away.

"Children, you take quite a while to just follow me and I was going slowly. You need more training, but that's for later. Come now, we don't got much time before the next cycle starts."

Anhae called on the children deeper into the forest. As they walked, Anhae looked around the surrounding tree and suddenly jumped up catching the branch of a tree, she swung around back and forth and suddenly the branch snapped.

The siblings were watching Anhae and thought she was just monkeying around, but suddenly when they heard the branch snap, Ken moved forward to break her fall while Laina just stood closing her eyes and peeing through the gaps.

Anhae somersaulted in mid air and seeing that Ken jumped front onto the place she hoped to land, she landed on Ken's head and jumped herself forward using his head as a hold. She rolled off the ground with the branch in her hand.

"Ken!!! Are you alright son?? Did you really think I was falling...", she turned back alarmed and then shrugging at the young chimp who was rubbing the dirt off his hairy body and rubbing his head.

"Oh my God!!! That was FUCKING amazing.. teach me how to do that !!!!", cried out Laina seeing the scene unfold before her.

"Mind you language young lady!!! I better not hear you using that kind of language in the camp..."

Ken was also glaring at his sister's words.

"Sorry....", said Laina pouting at both Anhae and Ken, but seeing Ken's frown she ended her sentence "...mom."

Matt(Ken) was always protective of his sister, Natalie(Laina) since their mother had passed away due to a brain stroke. Laina was 3 years old and Ken was 7 years old at that time. He remembers his mother faintly, even her face would have been a blur in his mind if it weren't for all the childhood photographs around their home.

Among all those memories the most important memory he remembered was when his mom had once told him to always protect his sister. The reason she had told him was because it was around the time Laina had started walking and she was pulling on the table cloth. The table had a set of knifes on them and other utensils his mother had placed while cleaning. Before she could tug completely at the table cloth, Ken caught the knife by its blade as it was about to fall off the table and near Laina. He had cut his fingers in the process and by the time his mother returned, he picked Laina off the floor and placed her in the kiddie chair.

After seeing his strictness and protectiveness over his sister, even their father became laid off seeing his doting son. Laina never remembered her mother, but she always had her brother and she always got her way.

Ken had gone off to college nearby and looked over his sister during her high school. But Laina wanted to pursue an education in the arts and the she got a scholarship to an all girls Arts school. He bluntly refused her scholarship, but later their father had to intervene and the result was that Laina got her way, as always.

After the first VRMMORPG was released, Ken ordered two gears and sent one to his sister. They started the game together and this was a way for him to keep tabs on her. When they were born again, but as a chimp. He was angry at how stupid the game was, but after having met Anhae, he started to remember those faint memories of his mother. He played the game more often to just be with Anhae and Laina.

Anhae hit Ken on the head with the branch after seeing the glare that Ken shot at his sister.

"Stop throwing those glares at your sister. One of these days those leaves on her will burn when you do that."

"Sorry", Ken stopped, turned and nodded at Anhae.

"Mother, why do you need that branch?"

"Oh this?", she said showing it up front.

"This is for fishing.", she said while pulling away at the leaves and small branches connected to it.

After she had removed all the unwanted bits, it looked like a staff. She then took the branch by the thicker end and started rubbing the thinner edge on the hard ground and sharpened it. The result after a few minutes looked like a wooden pike or lance about two and half meters long, but it looked small in the hands of the 2 meter tall chimp.

"See, now pick out some branches for yourselves quick."

Ken and Laina climbed on the tree and broke off their respective branches, but they were much smaller and thinner than the one Anhae had in her hand. They sharpened the branches similarly to how Anhae had done it and it was ready. Ken's branch was about one and half meter long which taller than him, while Laina's was shorter than his by a few centimetres.

"Now, follow me, we don't have much time before it starts raining and it will make it much slower to get back."

Ken and Laina followed her into the jungle, but after a while the jungle seemed to stop and the area around looked barren. A few minutes later they had arrived at a huge mound in the middle of the barren land, but the mound looked strange with small chimney like protrusion at the top.

Ken soon realised what it was before him, but didn't say anything knowing the reaction he would get from Laina.

"Now look carefully. Ken you go next.", said Anhae as she approached the mound.

She poked at the mount near the middle and pushed her branch inside. After a few seconds, she pulled it outside and on the branches were three termites biting hold of the branch strongly. Each termite was about two to three feet long and about a feet in width. Seeing the Chimp holding the other end of the branch, the termites let go of the branch and started to run back into the opening on the mound that Anhae had made.

Anhae knowing this, poked at the termites quickly with the pointed end and skewered them. She then walked towards us biting off the termites from the branch in her hand.

"Ken, go and do it fast. If something comes up with a pointy head, you should be fine if you don't let it poke you. Now get it fast."

Ken was surprised at the sight before him, he had never seen such big insects, but he was ready to face it. He glanced back at his sister and he face was expression less, he guessed he was either shocked in fear or just shocked.

He walked up to the mound and put his branch into the opening Anhae had made. After a few second he removed the branch to see two termites were biting hold of the branch and they had ate through the thin branch a bit. Before they could drop off from the branch, Ken swung the branch and threw the termites onto the ground and suddenly he skewered them.

He walked back looking at the termites on his branch and looked at Anhae and Laina. The termite he had caught were smaller about a feet or less in size.

"Well what are you looking at, eat. Laina you're next. Go fast if you don't want a large ground of pokers on you. "

Ken was looking at the branch before him and slowly brought it towards his mouth, he took a bite off the termite with a thought he was going to vomit right after, but to his surprise it tasted juicy and bit sweet.

Wow...Tasty!!!

Laina was looking at her brother take a bite at the bug in his branch and he jaw fell. If the jaw was not fixed, it would have probably fell to the ground. Seeing him take another bite off the bug, she started saying.

"EwWW...Eww..Ewwww...."

Ken had finished his first termite by now and seeing his sister making noise, he pointed the branch with the skewered termite towards her. As the branch reached her, he froze in shock and opened her mouth. Ken then suddenly pulled the termite off his branch and put it into her mouth, he then pushed her head down with his arm.

Laina crushed the bug in her mouth and she swallowed half. She was suddenly feeling nauseous , but she started chewing the bug in her mouth and swallowed.

"OH MY GOD!!! That was gross and tasty at the same time. It tasted like cashews!!!. But Ken why did you push that into my mouth.... I would have tried it..."

"No, you wouldn't!! Now go and catch some. Stop acting spoilt!!!

. Remember, I gave you one of mine and you will get me one from yours."

"I'm not.... Shesh!!!! OK!!!!"

Laina walked over to the mound and slowly pushed her branch into the opening. She waited for a few seconds longer than the others had taken and pulled it out.

On the branch were three termites and they had eaten half way through, seeing the termite looking at her, she dropped the branch.

"AaaahH!!!! It looked at me.. it looked at me... ", she cried.

Unlike the earlier termites which ran in after looking at Anhae and Ken, these three termites moved towards Laina. As the termites moved towards her, she stumbled backwards and fell down whimpering.

"Nooo... Ken... Help...!!! They are going to get me..."

Suddenly three more termites ran outwards from the opening, but they looked different, these three had a pair of pointy mandibles. Ken knew they were the soldier termites around the area and rushed towards his sister.

The soldiers rushed towards Laina, but she crawled backwards swiftly shouting "No.!!! help!!! KEN!!!!"

Anhae didn't move from her place and only face palmed at the scene before her. Ken rushed forward and stood before Laina, he used his branch and skewered two of the three soldiers, but it broke suddenly. The three worker walked towards Laina, but the remaining soldier termite jumped towards him.

Ken dropped the broken branch and kicked the remaining soldier in mid air which was moving towards him. The soldier flew and fell on the mound forcefully and landed on it back motionless. He turned around to take care of the three worker termites, but saw that Anhae had taken care of those three with the branch.

"Laina...!!! "

"Leave it be Ken. It's her first time. Are you alright sweetie..."

"Don't spoil her mother.", he said walking back to pick the broken branch with two skewered soldier termites.

Ken showed the branch towards Laina who was still on the ground with tears in her eyes. Anhae helped her up and comforted her by rubbing her head.

"K...e..n....*sniff* I was scared.", Laina said and hugged Ken.

"Ok, let's get back. The next cycle will start soon and we won't be able to avoid it if we don't leave now. ", Anhae said smiling at the two sibling.

Anhae gave the three workers she caught in her branch to Laina and Ken ate one of the soldier termites he caught, he gave the other soldier termite to Anhae. While eating the termites they had caught, they forgot about the soldier that Ken had kicked towards the mound.

As they were eating, a colony of soldier termites were rushing towards them.

"Children, start running. Follow me!!!, Anhae shouted towards the children seeing the termites running towards them.

"Laina, don't look back and just run." , Ken told Laina and pulled her along following Anhae.

Laina knew what was chasing them and she cried out while being swung across trees by her brother.

"UWAaaaAAAHHHhhAAA!!!!!", Her cry resonated throughout the forest.

*****

"Get it!!"

"It's mine!!"

"Don't you try to jump in, it's mine!!"

"FUCK OFF!!! I saw it first."

"Go back to your coconut shell you noob!!!"

On the shore not so far away from the great mountains, an affray among a group of varying sized crabs was unfolding. The price they all fought over was a conch, but this particular conch looked different - it was grey is shade and had many spines over it to protect itself from preys.

A large number of shells and conchs were available of the sea shore until two days ago, but the discovery that the first stage of growth for the crabs were completed when they found themselves a comfy and decent shell as their armour.

In the beginning, everyone just took some shells in random, but later people found out that based on the different uniqueness of the different shells, there were differing bonuses during growth. A hard and thick shell provided huge defence bonuses and also the Hard shell skill, which increased the defence by 2x times at level one. Some spiky shells provided reflecting damage and other effects.

Due to the less number of distinct types of shells around the shore, all the new born (NPCs) and travellers (players) had to fight for their shells. The adult crabs did not interfere in this ordeal as they themselves fought over their shells in the first place.

Nel was excited when the new VRMMORPG was released. He anticipated a fantasy genre or even a sci-fi channel and when the game started with him in the ethereal world followed by the GOD's announcement left him wanting for more, but when he went through the doors to start his journey his dreams of adventures and legendary battles were shattered.

He woke up underwater looking like a tadpole - pink, transparent and small. He felt weak and was living off the left over food from the adult crabs who were sloppy eaters. The first day went eventless when he logged off after seven hours in game.

On logging in, he was amazed to see that his avatar had grown into a small crab - a pair of claws, a pair of medium sized legs and a pair of small legs on either sides of the claws, these are all connected on a small chest shield and below was a soft and defenceless abdomen. He was happy with the new change, but not impressed by the game. The only thing that kept him playing was the hope on his steady growth.

After two days of game play and hunting small fishes under the watchful eyes of his NPC mother. Along with him were over a thousand other crabs and it looked like a cast of crabs belonging and following his NPC mother, whom he later came know as T'chxl. Killing the small fishes and eating the leftovers from T'chxl by fighting with the other crabs, he had reached level 5, but after three days of playing, he had reached a break point and so did the others. Even after sleeping for over three hours which was the minimum time for a growth cycle that someone had found, no one changed.

"Children you need to find new homes to grow...", was what T'chxl would say continuously seeing the bunch around her who had not yet grown, but the young crabs thought that she was asking them to leave and hung for themselves and didn't leave her from their sight.

On the third day, of the thousands of small crabs surrounding T'chxl, a crab by the name of G'chit, who was actually a NPC rather than a player moved away from T'chxl and took refuge in a shell on the sea floor. Everyone thought the crab got bored hanging around without any progress and went off on its own, but after a few hours an adult crab with a shell similar to the one G'chit had entered joined the cast.

A few gathered around him questioning him and finding that he was G'chit, an even large crowd gathered around him and questioned him relentlessly. After a few hours G'chit started to attack at the surrounding younger crabs. T'chxl seeing this jumped in and knocked him out of the group. After G'chit's attack on the younger crabs, a few left the cast around T'chxl and went hunting for shells to enter, while a few scared by the instance stood around her. The one's who left the cast mostly were players.

Nel was one of the players who had left the cast to find a suitable shell, but whenever he found one there would be a huge fight where the fight would end with someone slipping into the shell when no one is looking and blocking the entrance with his claws. He was irritated by this and finally after a few days of travelling underwater, they reached a sea shore. Finally as they reached the sea shore, there was a large quantity of sea shells on the shore buried under the soil and many found their shells, but Nel was unsettled by his discovery, he had reached level 10 and grown a significant bit leaving him larger for all the small sea shells available. The adult crabs on the sea shore announced that everyone who do not have shells will be prey for the flying predators.

Nel was irritated by the fact that none of the shells fit him and now when he finally found a shell it was fought over by a large group of crabs.

Cursing the game, Nel dove back into the sea and went deeper into the bed of the sea there he saw a large conch at the bottom of the sea. It was the most threatening conch he had ever seen, it had spikes on all directions and swirled like a tornado, but as he went closer it was moving. Seeing the movement Nel kept his distance, but always at a viewable angle. The conch was moving slowly, but after a while a grey blob slowly crawled up behind it.

Nel missed the grey blob at first, but when he saw it nearing the conch he was amazed as it suddenly enveloped the conch. He waited and saw that the large octopus move sideways and rolling around. The octopus let go of the conch and Nel leaded in with his stalk like eyes, but to his surprise the conch moved slowly after the octopus fled the scene.

Nel unrelenting on the opportunity missed he slowly approached the conch as it had stopped moving for a while. He closed in on the conch and saw that it towered over him, as he moved in he found that the conch had retreated back into the shell and it laid motionless.

He push the conch gently and it made no movement. He went closer and flipped it with his claws. As he looked into the conch slowly, he found that the conch was dead and it was killed by the attack previously done by the octopus as there was a chunk of tissue missing from the side of the conch. Nel closed in and tried to pull the dead conch out of the shell, but without any success. He then started to cut away at the tissues of the conch and thinking it was going to waste, he fed himself on the dead conch. It was something he had never tasted before.

After a few hours Nel was able to completely clean away at the conch interior while eating away at its previous owner. Nel was tired and entered the shell, but it was a bit larger for him. The spaciousness was not a problem, but cleaning up the conch underwater took a toll at him, also it had been hours since he logged in and he logged off by putting his avatar to sleep.

A few hours after freshening himself up and having a bite to eat, he logged in and he was welcomed with a large number of notifications.

Growth has started and you have reached the next stage.

Shell properties have been integrated with body and growth has been doubled due to the experience gained from the Shell

Learned new skill, Hard Shell - Passive

Learned new skill, Self Defence - Passive

Learned new skill, Neurotoxin

New Quest :

Prepare for Growth:

Collect and devour different types of food.

Task : Collect 7 different types of food substance to lead to next part of growth.

List : Number of food type collected : 0/7

Reward : New skill, Experience.

Grateful and amazed by some change in the gaming experience. He went about and collected a sufficient quantity of the food and placed them in a hidden part under a tree on the shore.

The conch was different in appearance than before his change. It has become much lighter and more tougher in appearance. The spines around it's body now felt more threatening and they were a look of envy from other crabs and players alike around him.

He had collected over 5 different types of food - sea weed, small fish, clams, wild berries and a coconut, but the quest didn't get updated about the collected food. He felt hungry and ate the small fishes he had collected which was quite a lot and suddenly the quest updates to 1/7 collected.

Realizing the course of action, Nel started eating the collected food and went hunting for more. After a few hours he had ate two more different types of food though he ate quite a lot he still had an appetite for more. The next two food he ate was a sea urchin he found in the sea bed when he was catching more small fishes. The last food was the most surprising of all, he went to a fresh water lake nearby to drink water and after drinking for a full 5 minutes continuously all the items in the list were completed, which lead to him completing the quest and gaining three levels and a skill called, Iron Scale.

A new quest was generated after the completion of the collection quest, but Nel was further irritated by the quest, for what it meant and it's relation to the new skill he just received.

New Quest:

Next Growth Mode - Moulting

Find a suitable location to start the next step of your growth. The choice of location will affect with new affinities gained.

Hint: If the location selected is open to predators, you may be killed. This growth mode can be repeated but a new quest will not be generated for this.

Reward : Skills, Experience, ????

Failure : Death, ????

He checked his new skill and found that this would increase his defence a lot, but there was always a catch.

Skill Information

Iron Scale - Passive - Level 1

Increases the defence of the scales by 100% after each time growth mode - Moulting. The rate of increase in defence increases with each level.

Bonuses - 0%

Nel had never owned a crab or any crustacean pet, but he has heard of the term moulting because of the cat he had a very long time ago and the cat used to sleep on his bed when it was moulting and it shed a large amount of fur on his bed. He hated pets in general after an horrible incident one summer.

Nel was irritated, but he had a quest, one more which leads to another. He was full now and felt tired after getting the new quest, the exhaustion was slowly building as he went around looking for a suitable location to start his moulting. He didn't find any place hidden enough for him to start moulting and he logged off to find any information he could on Moulting in crabs.

Lenord had just logged off the new VRMMORPG, Hundred Worlds to check on the facts on crustacean moulting. He picked himself off the ergonomic pushback gaming chair he was lying on and wore his MR goggles.

"Read Command : Find data on crab and moulting "

"Screen is now showing data on Crab + Moulting."

A large number of search results were displayed before him and he opened an article called 'The Miracle called Moulting' and he skimmed through the article.

The article was about hermit crabs where a crab sheds it's scales and creates new stronger and bigger scales for it. During this moulting period the crab goes into an hibernation by digging itself under ground for a month or more, hence it eats a large amount of food before going to moult. He was disappointed by the fact that the moulting takes over a month to happen in real life, but he was also happy from the fact that adult crabs moult only after a year or so and the growth in the game was very fast in this case.

Another fact that greatly interested him was the fact that while moulting any missing limbs will re-grow. Delighted by the turn of events , he quickly logged back in to find a suitable location to start his moulting.

Nel logged in and he was standing on the parched ground deep inside the jungle where he had logged off before searching for a spot to begin moulting.

All of a sudden he heard a shout echoing around.

"UWAaaaAAAHHHhhAAA!!!!!"

The sound which followed was a weird clicking sound like small sticks tapping against each others, but over a thousand at the same time. The noises were coming from the right away from the shore and deeper into the jungle.

He was able to pinpoint how many distinct clicks were creating the noise and in which direction they were in. This sense of hearing was different to him as it felt like he could just about sense or hear anything if he concentrated hard enough.

He walked away from the noise and went towards the path between the parched ground and the shore where he walked around many predators on the way, but the few foxes and jungle cats which noticed him left him alone. His exhaustion had grown incredibly after he had logged in and it was at its peak, as he felt like falling now and going back into his shell to sleep.

The place he had stopped at was nearby the shore as it was humid, but the land was parched and the soil was red. Something compelled him to stop here and as he had read in the articles he started to dig out a large hole on the ground with his claws and went deeper into the soil. The soil was looser than it looked and he reached about three or four feet into the soil and suddenly a window popped up into his screen.

You have started the Growth Mode - Moulting.

You are logged off and your character will not be accessible for 24 hours.

After displaying the window a countdown started from ten and the screen went blank. He was forced logged off.

"Bollocks....", Lenord said removing the VR beanie off his head.

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