Breathe in, breathe out...

Breathe in, breathe out...

Relax, relax, relax...

This isn't so bad or boring as I thought it would be, on the contrary, it's actually quite relaxing.

Even if this doesn't work out, I could still see myself doing this from time to time to relax my nerves...

Breathe in, breathe out...

After finally calming my breathing, I slowly started to breathe in some kind of rhythm.

I didn't notice it at first, but after a while, it really does become noticeable.

Why all of this took so long is probably because I never really sat down and did nothing, even in my previous life...

If I wasn't studying or playing games, I was either hanging out with friends or go out for a walk or even go for a light jog.

Not to mention, ever since I entered college, I spend far too much time experimenting while cooking then I'm willing to admit.

Breathe in, breathe out...

It's been awhile since I started this "meditation", but for some reason, I just don't feel like I'm doing this right...

Well, you can't blame me for being bad at something that I never even considered doing up until now.

But why do I feel like I'm doing this incorrectly?

Actually, rather than feeling wrong, it's more like my subconscious is screaming at me:

"You idiot, this isn't the right way !!!".

Honestly, I never had a feeling like this up until now...

Anyway, I'm currently sitting, or better said, lying on my shell, completely relaxed,

while calmly breathing in what appears to be a rhythm.

But what am I doing wrong? Breathing incorrectly?!

If I remember correctly, there are all kinds of different breathing techniques for all kinds of purposes... I think...

I was never a fan of Chinese or Korean martial arts and cultivations stories,

so I have no idea about anything that has to do with meditation.

The only thing I know about breathing techniques is that they could have health benefits or help you to fall asleep better.

And I heard this as passing remarks from my biology teacher...

Ugh, I don't know even one technique, or rather, how do you even breathe in different ways?

I mean, you inhale and then you exhale the air, the only difference there could be is from where you breathe,

from your mouth or from your nose, that's it...

Wait, is that maybe it? Wait, wait, wait, how am I even breathing normally again?

I mean, you can figure it out in a second, but you normally never even take note of it.

And if you do take note of it for some reason, you normally forget all about it right away...

Honestly, what's there to think about "BREATHING" in the first place ?!

Anyway, even though I look like a bug, I still have something like a nose and I breathe through it the same way a human would.

This would also mean that I have something akin to lungs or something similar.

So far, so good and nothing special about it...

Then, when I tire out or something, I usually breathe through my mouth to catch my breath.

That kind of breathing is usually quite chaotic, so to calm it down, I inhale through my nose and exhale through my mouth.

Again, it's the same way humans breathe, there is nothing special to take note off.

Breathe in, breathe out...

Breathe in, breathe out...

Wait, wait, wait, if I normally breathe through my nose,

breathe through my mouth to catch my breath

and inhale through my nose, exhale through my mouth to calm down my breathing, then...

What about inhaling through my mouth and exhaling through my nose ?!

Normally, I don't think even humans breathe like that in any kind of situations, unless they consciously do it purposely.

Is that maybe it?

Haaa, I can't believe that I'm thinking so seriously about something as simple as breathing.

It feels kinda stupid, but I'm grasping at straws here...

Honestly, I may actually be completely wrong about all of this,

but it's better to try and fail then to don't try at all, right?

Anyway, let's try breathing like that for a while, see if this weird feeling will go away.

Breathe in, breathe out...

Breathe in, breathe out...

It feels weird now...

It doesn't feel wrong like it did it in the beginning, but now it feels weird... and different?

Maybe that's a sign that I'm going in the right direction? I can only stay optimistic and hope that's the case...

Anyway, let's continue like this and relax, at least until Leafy gets out of that egg.

..........

As I continued to meditate, the sun has started to slowly rise, warming the surface of the sand.

..........

How long did I meditate? I think that I also doze off a few times, but I'm not sure...

I can feel the sun warming my shell, while the occasional wind cools me down.

When I hatched, there was barely any wind at all, even during the night.

But now, the wind is occasionally blowing from time to time.

It really feels like the season is changing or something, like when the summer change to autumn...

To go back to the topic, I didn't stop meditating even once, calmly breathing without thinking about anything in particular.

That's probably also why I doze off a few times, especially since I didn't sleep at all...

As my drowsiness slowly faded away, I started listening to the surroundings.

It's quiet. Other than the occasional wind blowing and moving the sand, it's really quiet...

It's quite nice, I could stay like this the whole day...

This peace and quiet...

Breathe in, breathe out...

While being completely focused on the surrounding sounds, I started to hear a few noises from behind me...

Scratching noises? If I'm not mistaken, isn't that where Leafy is right now?

Opening my eyes, I slowly stood up and looked behind me toward the area where the egg was.

Hmm, is it just me or did the egg change color or something, not to mention, it looks a lot bigger then I remember...

It's a little brownish now...

I try to listen again, but I can't hear anything out of the ordinary. Did I just imagine those scratching noises?

Before I had any more time to start doubting myself,

the egg started to tremble and small cracks started to appear on its surface.

No way, is it done? I'm really excited to see into what did Leafy evolve.

I mean, I couldn't sleep the whole night from excitement (and a little bit of worry)...

Out of a sudden, catching me by surprise, the eggshell bursts from the inside, with Leafy emerging out of it,

completely changed. He was now dark green in color, with his shell and scythes were brown and had a wooden texture.

Actually, those aren't even scythes anymore, now they look more like curved blades or something.

The leaves that were growing on his shell has become thin long branches,

covering his shell like some kind of fur or hair, with dark green leaves growing on them.

He even has three long tails now, looking more like some kind of roots than anything else.

And not to mention, he is a lot bigger now, probably the same size as those brown pillbugs...

I do get where his evolution path is going, more plant-like and all that, but isn't this a little too much of a change?

I don't think we are even the same race anymore...

Coming to his senses, Leafy finally spotted me staring at him completely dumbfounded.

Because our faces look more like masks, we can't really express any kind of emotions on them, but for some reason,

I feel like Leafy smiled at me with pride...

And then he started stretching himself to show how big he is right now while moving his tails and branches like a peacock...

Wait, you can move even those branches ?!

Also, I'm not your freaking girlfriend that you can impress with that peacock imitation, you woodhead!!!

(It's really bothering me since I still don't know our gender or if we even have one at all...

Not to mention, how my race reproduces is also a complete mystery to me...)

Well, at least he looks happy and proud about how his evolution turned up.

Not gonna lie, he now looks magnificent, well, other than his face. He still has that stupid looking face...

Other than the color, it didn't change at all.

Honestly, now I'm even more pumped up for my own evolution, but I also worried since it takes so long to evolve...

It took Leafy more than the whole night and morning to finish his evolution.

If I wasn't here and something came, he would be done for.

Looks like you also need to be careful about where and when you choose to evolve.

If you're not careful, you basically end up being a served dish for anything that finds you.

Anyway, I'm quite hungry and Leafy is to by the looks of it, so let's eat before anything else...

After finishing the whole brown pillbug from yesterday,

we put his shell to the side with the rest of the shell's we collected up until now.

And whoa, Leafy now eats like a glutton, is it because he just evolved or is he always gonna eat this much?

Well, no matter. Good thing he has that [Photosynthesis] skill so he usually eats far less because of it.

Right, now with our bellies full, let's see how much did Leafy's status improve...

[Status Check]

Name: Leafy

Race: StoneWood Armadill Warrior [Unique]

Status: normal

Attribute: Nature

LV: 1/25

EXP: 13

Hp: 20/20

Mp: 5/5

Attack: 7

Defense: 17

Magic: 5

Agility: 30

Luck: 3

Race Skills:

[Wooden Shell:LV5]

[Photosynthesis:Lv6]

[Blades:Lv4]

[Root Tail:Lv1]

Resistance Skills:

[Physical Resistance:LV3]

[Dehydration Resistance:Lv2]

[Water Magic Resistance:LV1]

Normal Skills:

[Roll:LV6]

[Digging:LV7]

[Evasion:Lv1]

[Tail Bash:LV1]

Magic Skills:

[Mana Perception:LV1]

[Mana Clad:LV1]

[Nature Magic:LV1]

Title:

[Assassin:Lv1]

[Unique One:LV1]

Whoa, wait, wait, wait... WOW!!! I did not expect such a huge change...

His stats skyrocketed like crazy, got an abundant of new skills

and some of them are under the [Magic Skills] category, something I see for the first time...

However, the most curious thing is his race. It changed from [Isopoda] to something called [Armadill].

Wait, isn't that some kind of family of bugs from my previous life?

No way, he doesn't look like anything I remember.

Also, what does [StoneWood] supposed to mean ?! A stone-like wood or a wood-like stone? It doesn't make any sense...

And lastly, not only is there a word [Unique] in his race's name, he even has a title [Unique one]...

Well, all of this is quite confusing, but I think I can explain at least that [Unique] part of all of this.

It's probably because Leafy didn't evolve per se, he Mutated.

Let's review everything that could contribute to this result. Ever since I and Leafy formed a [Party],

I have been pushing him to do things that he wouldn't normally do and as a result,

he leveled up skills that someone from his race wouldn't normally be able to.

The skills that contributed the most for this result were probably [Shell], [Scythes] and [Physical Resistance],

skills that normally a [Nature Isopoda] wouldn't be able to level up since they are weak but fast,

so they would normally avoid any kind of fight. This would explain why he has a [Warrior] in his name and considering what race he previously was, it is something outside the norm, hence [Unique].

Now for the rest, I'm not so sure if I could even speculate.

I just have little to no knowledge as of yet about how evolution and mutations work.

Why is his race's name [StoneWood Armadill], why did he get skills that are magic related,

I simply can't answer those questions as of right now, unfortunately...

Anyway, now that he has magic-related skills, and the most important one [Magic Perception],

I can use him as a reference for my training.

However, that can wait for now. First thing first, we need to go on another hunt to resupply,

especially since Leafy will probably eat more than usual from now on and our leftov.............................

..........................

...........wHaT?

..........................

Suddenly, I felt goosebumps all over my body as the unbelievable discomfort hit me out of a sudden.

I could hear something in the distance for a while now,

but I didn't pay it any attention since I was so excited about Leafy's status

and I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.....

But the noises didn't stop, rather, they have gotten even louder than before

even though I can't see anything in the direction from where they coming from...

Something doesn't feel right, and this feeling is even stronger than the one I had when I was meditating...

Before long, I could see something in the distance accompanying the sound. The sand cloud was forming in the distance...

Is that a sandstorm ?!

No, this is something else. Before long, I could make out something else in the distance.

Pillbugs, lots and lots of pillbugs running in this direction...

Before I could even finish the thought "Why are they running toward us",

this uncomfortable feeling makes me realize that they aren't running toward us, they are running from something else...

[Normal skill [Danger Perception:Lv1] acquired]

Before I could even think about what could make so many pillbugs run away from it,

I spotted a silhouette in the sand cloud, so big that the rest of the pillbugs looked so small in comparison...