Ch.4 Evolution?

After the group of raiders had disappeared, Cinis released Aiden and started to consume the bodies left on the ground. Originally there was also a corpse of one of the tall creatures among them. It was taken by the others of its kind.

“Stats gained - 1 Dexterity (DEX);

Afterwards Cinis carefully went into the cave. While vines were obscuring the entrance, Cinis was able to see the pile of the small creatures, or rather the Goblin’s lifeless bodies. As they were passing the heap of corpses Cinis noticed a movement.

‘What was that?’

‘I think one of the goblins survived.’

‘That's no challenge for me! Let’s finish it off and eat, quick.’

Cinis went to look, they were right, it was indeed a surviving goblin.

‘It’s so small, is it a baby?’

The little goblin hid under the corpse of another goblin. It was shivering a lot, the body it hid under was shaking as well.

‘We can’t kill this one. Look. it won’t even make a difference.’

‘Fine.’

Burning up all corpses but the one the baby was hiding under, Cinis moved on.

‘They were thorough, only the one we saw earlier survived’

‘Who cares about that, we have food now.’

Having explored the entire cave and having burned all the corpses, Cinis returned back to the entrance.

“Stats gained - 2 Dexterity (DEX) - 1 Agility (AGI) - 1 Constitution (CON) - 1 Strength (STR)”

‘Seriously? No skill or trait?’

Surprisingly the goblin had left its hideout. Cinis moved on, slipping through the Vines at the mouth of the cave, when they suddenly felt a sharp pain on their back.

“Hp lost - 12 - remaining - 48”

Shocked, Cinis bolted around to face their assailant. It was the young goblin, in its hand a blood stained stalagmite. The goblin was already readying itself for another strike, but Cinis was able to dodge the brunt of it. Not getting harmed, but being shoved to the side.

‘But I spared its life!’

‘Not everyone returns kindness. Now kill it.’

The goblin tried to stab again. Cinis bit into its arm and is lifted up into the air. The goblin ripped them off their arm and forcefully threw them on the ground.

“HP lost - 8 - remaining - 40”

Although feeling weak, Cinis was finally able to concentrate enough to release Aiden. Under constant pain Cinis sent Aiden closer to the goblin, scorching its hand. This caused the goblin to drop its weapon. Swerving under its legs, Cinis was able to catch it off guard and bite into the goblins ankle.

‘Attack the eyes.’

‘Isn’t that too cruel?’

‘This thing is trying to kill us!’

Cinis was pained to be forced into acting this cruel, but decided to follow Aidens Advice. They were the lizards' only friend after all.

‘It’s really not the time to think, it won’t be down for longer.’

Complying with Aidens plan, Cinis sent them at the creature's Eyes. singing them black. Sending Aiden deeper, at this point having turned away to not be forced to look at the gruesome scene, Cinis heard a notification.

“Bonus awarded for strong monster - Level up (2) - 2 to all stats.”

Not turning once to look at their dead foe, Cinis commanded Aiden to consume the body.

“Trait gained - Evolution”

‘Well that’s not ominous at all’

‘Just please, be quiet for a bit.’

Slowly meandering back to their hideout, Cinis was stuck in their thoughts.

‘Was that really necessary? Wasn’t there a better way?’

‘There probably was, but you would have died trying to figure it out.’

‘I know. I still feel bad.’

‘You get used to it.’

Shocked by Aidens bitter tone, Cinis quieted down and decided to check their new trait.

Trait: Evolution

Known for the chaos goblins can cause thanks to this trait. This trait allows you to change your species after reaching a certain level and fulfilling certain conditions.

‘Oh wow, we really lucked out on this one.’

‘I guess so.’

‘What else did you get? Show me!’

‘Here you go.’

Name: Cinis

Species: Lesser Red Lizard (4)

HP:48/80

MP:50/50

Strength (STR): 7

Agility (AGI): 9

Dexterity (DEX): 9

Constitution (CON): 8

Intelligence (INT): 13

Magic (MAG): 5

Skills:

Lesser Hungering Flame (3); Lesser Flame Resistance (1); Instinct (1); Lesser Blunt Force Resistance] (1); Lesser Ice Resistance (1);

Traits:

Sapient Monster; Evolution

Titles:

‘One more level for me. I’m going to be strong and useful.’

‘You are already useful.’

‘But I can be More useful, I need to be.’

‘I am not forcing you. You being here is enough.’

‘I also want to be more useful, just so that I can stay.’

‘You can always stay.’

‘Not if you die.’

‘That’s sweet of you, but I won’t. Not with you around, can’t go around disappointing a friend.’

‘Thank you.’

Caught up in their emotional moment the two didn’t realize they had already arrived back at their hole in the ground.

Cinis and Aiden talked about their plans for the next day for a while and then Cinis went to sleep. They had decided to hunt for more slimes, since there was not a lot of danger involved and the skills they could gain were quite useful.

The next morning Cinis woke up. They were feeling far better than when they fell asleep.

“HP restored”

They decided to go hunting, the same as the previous day. The slimes were easy to hunt, so there were no problems. During their fight, if you could even call it that, with a green slime, they heard a rumbling in the distance. Cinis reacted quickly, jumping into a bush and hiding.

Even though it seemed like the sound was very close, it continued to grow louder until it turned into an ear splitting roar. Cinis pressed themself close to the ground and curled up into a ball. At some point the sound felt like it couldn’t grow any louder. In that moment a herd of bird-like monsters broke through the foliage and trampled the ground. A few went through the bush Cinis was hiding in and trampled them around. Cinis was tossed to the side, losing 30 HP. Luckily the birds were not on track to hit them anymore, but Cinis was very injured.

Frantically looking around for a safe spot they found a slit in a cliffside. Cinis scuttled over to the slit and went inside. Happy to stay around the entrance, they didn’t attempt to go deeper and passed out from exhaustion.

‘Cinis. Cinis! Can you hear me?’

‘Wake up.’

Cinis woke up, still feeling sleepy they asked a question.

‘What happened?’

‘You passed out, I was worried.’

Noticing it was dark outside Cinis wondered just how long they were asleep.

‘For how long?’

‘Why would I know? I only regained consciousness as your sleep got lighter.’

‘It doesn’t matter anyway. I feel much better.’

‘That’s great. Hey, you haven’t checked your notifications yet, right?’

‘Right, let’s do that now then.’

“Stats gained: 1 Constitution (CON); 1 Magic (MAG) ”

“Gained Skill: [Lesser Plant Resistance]”

“HP restored”

‘Less than last time, but that was to be expected, we spent less time after all.’

‘Let’s go back.’

‘It’s night, we can’t safely travel at this time.’

‘How about we explore the cave? That would be fun, right?’

‘I’m not sure.’

‘Come on, let’s go!’

‘I don’t know if it’s safe.’

‘That’s Boring, please.’

‘Fine, but we have to be careful.’

So they went deeper into this slit. It took a few minutes but eventually it opened up into a larger cave, containing an underwater river.