By the time night had fallen I had successfully dug all three of the other pitfalls that I had wanted to complete and even had some time to take a small nap afterwards which was a good thing because I was exhausted and I needed to regain some energy before leaving the safety of the barrier.

When I woke up from my short nap, decided to check the Skill that I had unlocked earlier today before I had fallen asleep as well as checking my Skill increases one last time before I left the safety of the glade. I was pretty sure that this would be the last time I would be able to do this for who knows how long, and I was certain that this would give me enough Aspect Points to get the next lot of rewards from my Aspects.

Trapping Unlocked!

Trapping increases your ability to create traps and place them in areas where they will be most effective

Growth Rate increased by 1 Intelligence

1 Aspect point awarded for unlocking Trapping

Skills increased!

Digging increased to Lvl 4

Mana Manipulation increased to Lvl 10

Growth Rate increased by 1 Willpower

Mana Bolt increased to Lvl 6

Stone Shot increased to Lvl 5

The penetrative capability of Stone Shot has been increased.

Mana Blade increased to Lvl 4

Trapping increased to Level 2

Mapping increased to Lvl 3

Minion Control increased to Lvl 2

Running increased to Lvl 5

Growth Rate increased by 1 Agility

Controlled Breathing increased to Lvl 4

Available Aspect points increased by 12

Nice, that gave me a total of 13 points to spend which was a pretty good haul all things considered, and I had even reached Level 5 with two Skills and Level 10 with one which was awesome. Although I wasn’t sure why my Mapping Skill had increased by two levels when I had barely taken more than a couple of steps outside of the barrier.

Concentrating I brought up the mental image that my Mapping Skill unlocked and to my surprise there was a long slender line stretching out from the area I was personally familiar with although it wasn’t very detailed. In fact, there was almost no detail at all unlike the area close to me where I could see small circles that represented trees and blotches representing rock which told me what was going on. My Amoeba was also capable of filling in my map, unfortunately the information that it could fill in was limited because it couldn’t see and didn’t really know much about what was going on around it. In fact, at this distance I couldn’t even really tell whether it had taken detours because it had sensed danger or because it couldn’t actually physically go that way but still it was useful information to have.

With a shrug I brought up my Aspects screen and placed the 13 points that I had into Aspect of the Summoner.

Soon I found myself surrounded by the oceans of my internal world once again and this time I saw a single organism floating in the water, this organism then attached itself to a nearby rocky shelf and was soon joined by another which latched onto the original. This second organism was then followed by another and then another until the colony of organisms had formed into a cone-like shape that was covered in a hard shell. At the top of this shell there was a series of frills that trapped plankton which the colony used for sustenance. I didn’t really know what this thing was, but it seemed to be similar to coral in some ways as I knew that coral was also formed by a colony of small organisms which would then create the outer shell which we knew as coral to protect them.

Then everything changed again. This time I chose to close my eyes since the last few times that I had kept them open had been rather uncomfortable and when my eyes opened once more I came face to face with one of the strange creatures that lived in my inner world. It had a long thin body that was covered in some sort of shell until it’s head which had long tentacles made of soft flesh that were nonetheless powerful enough to catch its prey. They also appeared to have a pair of true eyes. They probably weren’t very good eyes, but they were still eyes which made them a very dangerous predator in these primitive oceans where a lot of the organisms that they hunted only had simple photoreceptors. This was the one of the first primitive cephalopods.

I could also see something that looked like a Chiton which were a primarily vegetarian mollusc that had a very hard outer shell covering their body making them almost impossible for most predators to hunt.

Blinking as I returned to my body I sighed heavily. Making all of these plans was all very well and good but I still didn’t even know if I could even do half the things that I was planning, both because I still didn’t really understand how the System really worked and because I was currently surrounded by hideous creatures that would like nothing more than to rip me to shreds. Sighing once more I shook my head and started reading the new notifications that had appeared in front of me while I was thinking.

Aspect of the Summoner has been increased to 43/50.

A Summoner must also be able to see as much of the battlefield as possible so that they have the knowledge needed to command their forces.

Perception increased by 3!

A Summoner’s ability to use their minions is based on many things but especially on their knowledge of tactics and their ability to keep track of their minion’s location.

+2 Wisdom

Aspect Points: 0

Soul Aspect increased to Level 103!

New and different forms of colonial organisms have appeared in your internal world. These new organisms work together to form a single whole that functions in such a way that one would normally assume that they were a single organism due to each individual providing a single function allowing them to specialise more than if they could all perform every function that a single organism needed to survive.

Coordination increased by 2!

Growth Rate increased by 2 Coordination!

Toughness increased by 1!

Two new types of creature that are both protected by tough shells have appeared in your Internal World. One is a dangerous predator with keen vision and multiple arms that it can use to capture its prey and the other is a much more sedentary creature that uses its shell to protect itself from nearly any predator around as it eats the algae that grows upon the rocks that it clings to.

Toughness increased by 2!

Coordination increased by 1!

Constitution increased by 1!

Perception increased by 1!

As your Soul Aspect has reached a new milestone you have the opportunity to decide which part of nature you shall favour; that of the predator or the prey. Your choice will slightly affect the course of evolution in your internal world.

Predators bring their prey down with massive force and speed and are often more intelligent that the creatures that they hunt.

Whereas prey is best at hiding from those that hunt them or outlasting them in either a contest of speed with their high endurance or their tough defences.

Choose Wisely

Predator focus (Also unlocks Aspect of the Predator)

Or

Prey focus (Also unlocks Aspect of the Prey)

Holy shit. There goes my theory about the milestone thing.

Now this was a big decision to make. I had to choose between focusing on predators or prey which was actually a pretty easy choice to make and selected Predator focus without a second thought. While choosing Prey focus would almost certainly increase the amount of Constitution and Endurance, I received from my Soul Aspect there was no way I was going to willingly make myself prey.

With a trembling finger I selected Predator focus and the notification disappeared in a flash of light. I waited for a couple of seconds to see if anything else happened but to no avail. A quick check of my Aspects Screen told me that I had indeed unlocked a new Aspect called Aspect of the Predator, but it was still a bit anticlimactic.

“Well I suppose I should check my Stats one last time,” I sighed as I brought up my Stat Screen again to check my Stats for the last time before I left the safety of the barrier.

Status

Level 1

Exp: 67%

HP: 141/141

MP: 141/141

HP Regen: 12.6 per minute

MP Regen: 10.7 per minute

SP: 83/83

Essence: 11

SP Regen: 7.2 per minute

Control Points: 16.6 (6.6)

Str: 6 (+3/Lvl)

Agi: 13 (+5/Lvl)

Con: 19 (+ 4/Lvl)

End: 9 (+6/Lvl)

Tou: 21 (+3/Lvl)

Int: 18 (+21/Lvl)

Coor: 12 (+7/Lvl)

Vit: 23 (+5/Lvl)

Wis: 15 (+13/Lvl)

Will: 21 (+16/Lvl)

Per: 17 (+10/Lvl)

Cha: 11 (+5/Lvl)

Additional Growth Rate: +11 Unassigned Stat Points/Lvl. +20 MP/Lvl. MP regen increased by 1/min per Lvl.

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

I sighed heavily as I passed my eyes over my Stats, I still hadn’t managed to Level Up, but I had managed to kill one more Crawler before taking my nap which had really pissed off two nearby Shelled Crawlers. When the scrawny Crawler that I had killed fell to the ground the tow massive monsters immediately retaliated with a barrage of magical attacks ranging from the same beam that the one that I had pissed off the other day had used to massive blades of magical energy that were more than five times the size of my Mana Blade. I had actually been quite worried that this assault would actually do some damage to the barrier but by the time they stopped all that had happened was the barrier had faded slightly in that one spot, but it quickly turned to normal while I watched.

However now I had other things to worry about so I clambered to my feet and ran to the side of the clearing that I had been attempting to draw the Crawlers over towards and fired as many Man Bolts as I could at the Crawlers that I found there before turning around and running back to where I had left everything that I was going to be bringing with me.

After collecting my gear and the last of the cake-things I made my way over to where I had allowed the amoeba to escape earlier and looked around. Thankfully my plan of leading the Crawlers away from this area seemed to have worked and I took one last look back over my shoulder before stepping through the barrier one last time.

Looking around as I started jogging through the woods I immediately found myself regretting not doing more things at night over the past couple of days because while I could see better in the dark in this body than my human body would’ve been able to I still felt like something could jump out at me from the shadows at any time which was especially worrying considering how stealthy Crawlers could be.

Still I decided to push on, following the amoeba’s path. I wasn’t sure how far ahead of me it actually was because I didn’t really have a frame of reference, but I could at least get some idea by keeping moving at the same speed that I was going at which was considerably faster than the amoeba could move which should eventually allow me to estimate how long it would take for me to catch up.

As it turned out my fears of being attacked were largely unfounded, I saw plenty of weird and wonderful wildlife as I ran through the night as well as a number of really interesting plants including some bioluminescent ones, but thankfully nothing seemed to be particularly interested in me. I saw all sorts of animals from something about the size of me hand that reminded me of a sea anemone with four stumpy legs that ended in suction cups that allowed it to climb trees with incredible ease to a strange floating jellyfish like creature. The jellyfish creature glowed with a suitably unearthly blue glow as it floated around. Of all of the things that I had seen so far tonight other than the Crawlers this creature was by far the thing that I was most wary of as it’s bell was almost as large as I was and its tentacles were as thick as my legs and it used them to pull itself along through the air using tree branches as anchors. Thankfully it didn’t seem to have noticed me as I ran past at an increased pace and soon, I left the strange creature behind me.

By now I had figured out that I would catch up to the amoeba in about an hour and a half if I kept moving at my current pace but I decided that taking a break to recover my Stamina was needed so I came to a halt under one of the bioluminescent plants to catch my breath. I had been taking short breaks to recover my SP every so often, but this was the first time that I had stopped completely. Usually I just walked while my SP was regenerating but this time, I couldn’t resist stopping to take a look at the alien plant that I had found.

“It’s beautiful,” I murmured as I took a closer look at the strange plant that glowed with an ethereal blue light the same colour as my Mana making me wonder whether this plant was magical. It wouldn’t surprise me too much if that was the case, but I didn’t really have any way to find out whether it was true or not. Still it was a strangely beautiful thing with a centre part that was shaped sort of like the pitcher plants back on earth but big enough for me to swim in. Or at least it would be large enough to swim in if I was stupid enough to try swimming in something that looked like a giant glowing pitcher plant. Interestingly the plant was also translucent and I could see several small shapes floating inside of it which as far as I was concerned confirmed my theory that this plant was just like a pitcher plant and used its glow and whatever the liquid inside of it was to attract its prey.

As I was examining the plant closer, I heard a twig snap behind me and turned around to see the strangest creature that I had ever seen. It was even stranger than the Crawlers which at least resembled giant starfish that walked around on land. But this creature blew that weirdness out of the water, mostly because it didn’t really resemble anything I recognised. The creature in front of me had six legs, smooth skin and four eyes. It also had a long snout that was filled to the brim with sharp teeth and two long pedipalp-like things that stuck out on either side of the snout that had spiked tips.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” I exclaimed as I dived to the side to avoid the thing as it charged towards me with its pedipalps and rolled to my feet just in time to avoid the thing as it spun around with surprising agility for something that looked so ungainly and charged towards me again.

Drawing my axe and kunai I fired a Mana Blast at the thing as it attempted to turn around much more which caused it to stumble slightly but its legs dug in before it fell over completely. The creature turned to look at me with a snarl as its snout peeled back to reveal a much larger maw than I had been expecting as its entire face shifted so that it could still see me with all four of its eyes.

“Okay, that’s gross,” I muttered as I fired a Mana Bolt at the things face in the hopes that its mouth would be a weak spot, but it quickly closed its mouth causing the magical projectile to glance right off of its skin like it was nothing and fly off into the distance until it struck a tree and burst sending splinters flying everywhere. “And of course, that didn’t work.”

My Mana Bolt had already levelled up quite a bit but it still didn’t seem to do that much damage, not that that surprised me very much because it was the spell that I unlocked alongside my Mana Manipulation Skill and as such was probably the weakest combat spell that existed. I was still hopeful that I would eventually unlock a more powerful version of the spell, but it was looking like that was going to be a long way off.

The creature charged towards me and started lashing out at me with its pedipalps making me backpedal quickly to avoid the attacks before lashing out with my kunai and axe in the hopes of dealing some damage but unfortunately the things pedipalps could move much faster than I expected and I soon had cuts and lacerations all over my arms and my axe knocked out of my hand.

“Shit!” I shouted as I realised that I was outmatched right now if I kept fighting this thing up close and started casting my Earthen Armour in combat for the first time as I checked what Level this thing was.

To my surprise (??? Lvl 4) appeared above this things head making my stomach begin to churn as I started to realise just how fucked I might be right now. I already knew this thing was faster and at least as agile as I was, it was also probably stronger and tougher than me as well which meant that my only real advantage was my magic. At least I was pretty sure that this thing couldn’t use magic, if it could then I was screwed.

My rocky armour flowed up over my body from the ground as the thing watched me with what appeared to be interest in its four eyes. I would only be able to keep Earthen Armour active for a few seconds, but it was better than nothing. Quickly I followed this up by casting my Stone Grip spell which caused a thin shell of earth to wrap around the creature which shrieked in surprise before the earth covered its face giving me a few moments to think.

I knew that the spell wasn’t going to last long enough for me to run away but hopefully I would be able to come up with something before it broke free. Running over to my axe I picked it up just as the first cracks started to appear in the earth that covered the creature that had ambushed me.

Already I could feel the drain on my MP starting to slow me down but as far as I could tell magic was the only real advantage that I had over this thing. Taking aim as the cracks widened in the shell of earth that covered the creature, I fired two Stone Shots towards it using up the majority of my remaining MP.

The projectiles smashed through the shell confining the creature and into its flesh causing it to scream in pain and shock. I blinked as I noticed how deep the projectiles had penetrated the creature’s body then shook my head and fired a Mana Bolt at one of the three Stone Shots that were sticking out of its body.

The blue projectile slammed into the base of one of the Stone Shots driving it even deeper in than they already were and also causing them to break off inside of the creature’s body where the shards would continue to cause more damage as it moved. Unfortunately, the small explosion caused by the Mana Bolt also broke the rest of the shell that was keeping the creature from attempting to eat my face but thankfully the creature started writhing on the ground in pain which only made the ooze leaking from the holes in its hide flow more freely as the shards of stone tore further into its flesh.

Seeing how poorly this thing seemed to be reacting to the pain I glanced around my surroundings cautiously. It seemed unlikely to me that this thing was so unused to experiencing pain, but I didn’t see anything trying to sneak up on me, so I turned my attention back to it just in time to see it flip back to its feet with a snarl. Apparently, it hadn’t been waiting for any friends but for me to approach it carelessly only for it to launch a surprise attack, which meant that I had still made the correct choice to keep back.

Still its wounds had clearly slowed the thing down which I noted as it lumbered towards me once more and I stepped to the side and deflected a swing from its pedipalps with my axe before slamming my kunai which I quickly enhanced with my Mana Edge spell into the base of its head causing it to start bucking and sending me flying through the air into a tree before sliding to the ground with a crash that knocked the wind from my lungs and caused a bolt of pain to lance up my left arm.

“Ah shit,” I groaned as I sat up wincing as my arm flared with pain once more and glanced down at the offending limb which was bent in a direction, I was pretty sure even a Yajashian arm wasn’t meant to bend. “Yeah that ain’t good.”

Luckily the thing that I was fighting seemed to be more worried about the weapon lodged deeply in its neck than it was about me which was especially good because I had just run out of MP causing my earthen armour to slough off of me.

“Shit,” I repeated. I was honestly surprised that my MP had lasted as long as it had but even with the armour this thing had been able to knock me into a tree hard enough to break my arm so if it managed to hit me now that I couldn’t use it anymore, I was as good as dead. I had even lost my axe when I had been sent flying into the tree so not only was I out of MP, but I was also unarmed.

Thinking quickly, I decided that my best chance was actually to get closer to the thing as it tried to get the kunai out of its neck because I had no idea where my axe had ended up and try and drive the weapon deeper somehow.

Running up I leapt onto the creatures back and grabbed my kunai with my right hand and gasped in pain as the sudden movement jolted my broken arm. Gripping onto the sides of the thing with my legs and started sawing at the top of the things neck with my kunai in the hopes of severing something important. If I had stabbed a knife into the same place in an animal of this size from earth, then I would’ve probably severed its spinal cord, but I didn’t know whether this creature had a spinal cord or something else. Still this was the best thing that I could think of right now, so I kept sawing away until I was sent flying when the beast screamed and bucked launching me through the air once again with my kunai clenched tightly in my fist.

Thankfully this time I was prepared for this and actually managed to perform something that almost resembled the break falls that I had been taught in the self-defence classes that I had taken back in elementary school. Unfortunately, my left arm somehow ended up underneath me and I still almost lost consciousness from the pain, but I bit my lip and rose to my feet once more fighting back a scream as something crunched in my broken arm. The last thing I needed now was for something else to come and attack us and the thing that I was fighting was already making enough noise for both of us.

The same stuff that was oozing from the wounds in its side was now flowing freely from the wound in its neck and dripped to the ground as the creature turned to look at me with all four of its enraged eyes.

I think that as far as injuries went I was probably the better off of the two of us but I had only managed to regenerate enough MP to cast one more Mana Bolt so far which meant that I still had the disadvantage because of how much better this things physical Stats were than mine.

Shifting my weight in preparation for the attack that I knew was coming and glanced down in surprise when my foot bumped into something. Seeing what it was my eyes widened in surprise as I quickly reached down and picked up the offending item which had turned out to be my axe. To my surprise the weapon was still in one piece which meant that I wasn’t going to have to make another one after this fight. If I managed to survive, that is.

As I stood back up the creature charged at me and this time I leapt to the left just in time for one of its pedipalps to rip a shallow line across my stomach as I activated my Chop and Mana Edge Skills and brought my axe down on the gaping wound in its neck. The wedge-shaped blade of my axe glowed with a blue and white light as it bit deeply into the neck of the creature as it passed ripping the weapon out of my hands once more as it careened into a nearby tree and fell to the ground in a boneless heap.

I could see that its chest was still heaving so I hesitated briefly before stepping closer. I had used up my MP again with that last use of Mana Edge so if I wanted to finish this thing off, I was going to have to use my weapons. The thing didn’t move as I approached, and I got bolder raising my kunai in preparation for what I assumed would be the final blow.

Reaching the things side I paused briefly before circling around to look the thing in the eye. To my surprise it’s four eyes were rolling like a panicked horse’s which led me to believe that I had indeed severed whatever functioned as its spinal cord.

My brow furrowed briefly as I gripped my kunai tighter and activated my Stab Skill causing the weapon to glow with a faint white light and drove the weapon into one of its eyes. I actually felt a bit sorry for the hideous thing even though it had attacked me which was why I was finishing it off in the most humane way that I could think off instead of running off and leaving it to die from its wounds like I probably should be doing. It was just a predator following its instincts and in reality, I shouldn’t have won this fight. I had just gotten lucky.

As I rose to my feet, I felt my blood begin to boil as changes started taking place within my body causing my eyes to widen as I realised what must be happening right now. I had just killed something that was three Levels higher than I was which must’ve given me enough experience to finally Level Up.