After his excitement started to die down, he realized that he’d have to figure some stuff out before he just went running off into the unknown. Like the fact that he didn't know how to use his body properly.

‘Alright, let's take this one step at a time.’ He thought as he started to stand. He was able to accomplish that easily, so next he started putting one foot in front of the other. At first, his feet were wobbly, but he started getting the hang of it quickly.

After walking in circles for a bit, he started to kick things up and started running laps. He ran in circles until he started getting dizzy and had to stop.

‘Ha, that was fun! It was a great workout and I don’t even feel tired. Also, I’m a porcupine so I should check out my quills, they’re my leading form of protection after all.’

As he was thinking about his quills, they suddenly all shot up and then settle back down. He tried recreating that feeling by flexing his body and they shoot back up. Then he relaxed and they came back down.

‘Well that’s the most I can do for now. I’ll practice using my body later, right now I really should get going. I’m not hungry yet but I’m going to need to find some food for later. And getting some water is also a main priority.’

With everything out of the way he could finally start his first adventure!

After double checking everything to make sure he didn’t miss anything, he made his way towards the cave entrance. When he got there, he started to move the leaves and sticks out of the way. More light started to make its way into the cave as he removed more rubbish, until there was a hole big enough for him to pass.

As he left the cave he looked up in wonder at the enormous trees, with their multicolored leaves and branches that where so dense you couldn’t see into them.

‘I guess I really am small, but even if I was still human, I don’t think I could’ve wrapped my arms around one of these trees trunks.’ Getting over his shock, he knew that he had to decide where to go.

‘Should I climb one of these trees? I mean there could be fruits and nuts up there and that'll take care of my food problem. But what tree do I climb…? Aw whatever, there's no use whining about it, let's just pick one at random. That's what makes this an adventure!’

He scanned the trees in the vicinity, and one tree attracted his attention. ‘What’s this feeling? Am I feeling like this because of the vegetarian title? I think it might be; well I guess I know where I'm going now.’

With his destination set he started walking towards that tree. It wasn't very far, maybe twenty meters, give or take. He could always run back home at any sign of danger.

A short walk later, he was finally at the base of the tree. ‘All that’s left is to start climbing’ he told himself as he started gripping the bark with his claws. He started making his way up the trunk and kept climbing until he made his way to the lowest branches.

As he stood on a sturdy branch, he finally got time to look around. ‘It’s a good thing I’m not afraid of heights, otherwise I would be freaking out. But wow is this tree huge, it almost feels like I could get lost up here, it’s like a maze. So far so good, now what was that thing giving me a funny feeling?’

He started moving from branch to branch, looking for anything calling out to him or anything he could eat. The climb had started to make him feel hungry.

As he got on higher branches, he finally found what he was looking for.

‘Is that an acorn?’

He started approaching it when, suddenly, a screen appeared in front of his eyes.

Tasty Acorn

A tastier version of a common acorn

One in ten acorns, are Tasty acorns

Effect: Just mildly tastier than normal acorns

HD Effect: When eaten grants 1 System point

‘That was surprising. Looks like that answered my questions though, I found what was calling me and got some food. What’s HD mean? Is it short for Healthy Digestion? I hope it is.’

‘Eating these acorns will get me points right, but its not going to be easy to find them. This is the first one I’ve found, and I was lucky it turned out to be a special one.’

He walked up to the acorn and grabbed it; it was small enough to fit in his hand. He broke off the outer layer and ate the rest. He did find it quite tasty. After finishing up his small meal he started to look for more.

A long while later, he’d only found two more and they were just normal acorns.

‘I can’t believe that there’s such a small number of acorns in such a large tree. There must be some other animal eating them.’

With that thought in mind, he heard rustling behind him and turned around. A black and white bird with a red crown stood before him. And once again the status screen appeared.

Race

Acorn Woodpecker

Level

1

Titles

N/A

Power

2.8

Speed

2.1

Defense

0.8

Soul

0.4

Skills

Active: N/A

Passive: N/A

‘Hey there, little buddy... How’s it going today, are having a good day?’ The woodpecker just kept on watching him. ‘I bet you can smell acorns on me but let me assure you I haven’t taken a single bite of an acorn today. Pinky promise.'

The woodpecker started to take flight while screeching “WAKA-WAKA-WAKA!!!”

‘Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! I lied I did have an acorn!’ He mentally shouted, as he started to run.

He didn’t get very far before the woodpecker dove in front of him, cutting him off. And as it was about to peck at him, he reflexively turned around and lifted his quills. He felt a sharp pain as the bird’s beak entered his back, he was then tossed off the branch he was standing on to a lower one.

‘SON OF A BITCH! GOD, THAT HURTS!’ Was all he thought as he felt a burning pain and his blood flowing from his back.

His mind was forced to regain focuses as he heard horrifying screams in the distance. Looking up, he saw the woodpecker impaled with dozens of quills. Most of which covered its face and upper body, one even pierced its eye.

‘That’s what you get you stupid bird! Why would you even do that when you saw my quills!? Do you need to have your eyes checked! Well I guess now you do; you brain dead moron! God my back HURTS!’

The woodpecker couldn’t understand anything he was saying but it was already beyond that. It ignored the horrible pain, blood loss, his wounds and started to charge at him again.

‘What the hell’s your problem!? How are you even still moving!? He desperately thought, as he began to run once more. He ran throughout the various branches and the woodpecker flew right behind him. It was slowly gaining on him. ‘Damn it! How is it even still following me, is he super bird?! Come on now, all I need to do is buy some more time. Think, there must be something I can do…’

‘IDIOT! I have a speed boosting skill, don’t I! I’m so stupid! It was called ‘Haste’ right?

Haste

2 ---> 2.2

Time Remaining: 5:00 Minutes

He felt a warm energy cover his body, making him feel much lighter.

‘Ha-ha, take that bird brain! Now, all I must do is make sure he doesn’t cut me off and he’ll bleed out long before the skills time runs out!’ he ecstatically told himself.

After about a minute had passed, the woodpecker could see that it wasn’t getting any closer to catching him. It was running out of time, so it chose a desperate option. The woodpecker gave a deafening screech and started to speed up.

When he heard the screech, he turned his head only to see the woodpecker quickly gaining on him.

‘How’s that even possible!’

Soul Burn

Something any being with a soul can use

Has Severe Consequences

Soul: 0.4 ---> 0.1

Speed: 2.1 ---> 2.4

‘COME ON MAN! Did I kill your family in my past life or something!? Why are you trying so hard!?

The woodpecker inched closer and closer, and any second now it would reach him. This caused him to freak out.

‘Damn it, what do I do now! It’s about to catch up! But really, who burns their soul over an acorn! Soul… SOUL!!! That’s it! Ok, last chance, it’s all or nothing!

He suddenly came to a complete stop and focused his eyes on the woodpecker. As it got closer and closer, he stood still repeatedly trying to activate his hail marry.

No target in range

No target in range

No target in range

Charm successful

Please give target an order

‘YES!’ he blissfully mind celebrated, as the adrenalin quickly left his body. Only to realized that his determined little friend was still coming right at him.

His mind went blank and the only thing he could think to shout was ‘GO HOME!’

The woodpecker made an abrupt stop, it then slowly turned around and flew away.