I blinked. Blinked twice, then three times, but what I saw did not change. It was a familiar place: I had returned to where I had been when this whole adventure had started. Complete with the blue ghost looking back at me… and, I quickly noticed to my delight, with my human body back. Still half-transparent and as ghostly as my blue friend over there, but it felt good to have a neck to turn, fingers to wriggle and arms to stretch over my head.

The place had changed a bit since my last visit, I noticed. The sky was brightly lit, sort of like in one of those panoramic night sky photos - long-exposure, I believe they were called? There were streaks of colour running across, similar to the northern lights, and there were just a handful of stars. Nothing like the hundreds that I had seen when I had first been here.

The island we were on was the same, just as big and barren as before. A hunk of rock with a flat surface. Oddly enough, I felt less odd about being here because of the familiar sight.

“You done enjoying the sights?” the ghost asked with its usual tone. “Good. I’ve got questions for you.”

“I… right”, I stammered. Right, the ghost was snappy, same as they’d been when I had first come here. I wondered where to begin, then I asked: “How much do you know? Have you seen what happened?”

“No. That’s why I’m asking.” It waved its hand around. “After you disappeared, the stars in the sky went out, then new ones winked into existence until it was the way it’s now. There’s been some changes here and there, but that’s all I know. I wondered if you’d died or something, but now you’re back here.”

“Right… Where do I begin.” I took a few moments to gather my thoughts, then I began explaining. “After I… had my choices made for me, I woke up in… I’d turned into a bug, and I hatched from an egg into a foreign world. It was pretty crazy, to be frank. Everything was enormous, or rather, I was very small. Ant-sized in fact. I was almost eaten by a giant animal, I found that the world has Skills and levels and stuff like an RPG, it has gods who manage the system, in fact I briefly met two of them…”

The ghost seemed to raise an eyebrow at this. “How long have you been out there?”

“How long? Uhh, let me think… about a day or so? I slept through some of it, so I don’t know exactly.”

“You met gods on your first day? I’d call you a liar but I can tell you’re honest. Sounds like you’ve been quite busy. I have no way of telling the time in this place, but I would guess that a day’s worth of time lines up with my experience.”

“Right, well… oh, I know! I was able to open my Status the first time I came in here, that would make things easier to explain. Let me see if…” I focused and thought about my Status. The next moment I saw the familiar window appearing before my eyes.

[STATUS (Nameless)]

Race

Small Parasite Hatchling [Monster] [Insectoid]

LV

0 ([Evolution] in progress)

Skill Points

10

Bio Points

0

Traits

Titan Slayer

Profaned

HP

0,62 / 1

MP

N/A

SP 0,59 / 1

Skills

Mooch (2) Leech (3) Dagger Proficiency (1) Piercing Fang (2) Grip (2) Chitin Carapace (1)

EXP Modifier

250%

“Here, can you see this?” I asked as I turned my back on the ghost so it could see the menu from the same angle as me.

“Yes. Looks like the panels that I was able to open when I first got here.”

“I had the same thought. Well, I have found that this Status is basically the… summary, I want to say, of me. For instance I took some from the stomach acids of the animal that ate me, which you can see here. And there’s a list of [Skills], which reflect the things I can do out there.”

“[Titan Slayer] and [Profaned], huh? And you met two gods, did you kill one or something?”

“I, ah, no. Nothing like that. I accidentally managed to kill the animal that had eaten me, and I guess because it was so much stronger than me I got that [Trait]. The [Profaned] one is… a little more complicated. I wasn’t supposed to be able to kill that animal, so this god did a check, and said he put a “blocker” on me to prevent me from getting some benefit from being near him. That last part happened a bit fast and without explanation so don’t bother asking me for details.”

“Mh. What’s that bit about [Evolution] in progress?”

“You homed in on that of all things? I’d have thought you’d be curious about the [Skills].”

“About that. I figured out that those stars in the sky open up, the same way as the previous ones did. Can’t do much with them but I could read some info. Although, I couldn’t open all of them. I’m guessing that there’s some kind of limit I’m not allowed to cross. Still, all the [Skills] you have listed there appeared in the stars. Written by someone with the vocabulary of a two-year-old I might add.”

“I had that same issue. It’s annoying, but that really opens up some theories… the fact that you can view my [Skills] by opening those Stars as if they were icons on a Desktop.”

“Icons? … actually never mind. I’m assuming that we don’t have forever to chat so I want to ask the important questions first. About that [Evolution]?”

“Right. I… hang on.” It was… right there. I knew I had caught a glimpse of a new message right before I’d passed out! And now, by tapping on the text saying [Evolution] in my Status, I reopened it.

Entity is now undergoing [Evolution] to [Small Parasite Hatchling].

Time left until completion: 3h 5m 38s.

“Hm. Three hours left”, the ghost said.

“Yeah. That’s some time. You have any more questions?”

“No, but the fact that I see your [Skills] in here and on your Status makes me think there is a link. Can you open the star over there? The bright-ish red one?”

I focused on it, and a tiny window popped up before me.

HP: 0,64 / 1

I compared this against my Status. Sure enough, my HP were the same on both windows, and when it ticked up to 0,65 it did so on both windows at the same time.

“It shows my health. Same exact number as my Status.”

“I thought as much. I couldn’t open that star and see its contents, but you can. That means there is some level of… permission, shall we say, that you have and I don’t. It’s the same as when I was unable to do more than read some information the first time that we met. It has me believing that this place is some form of representation of you.”

“Eh, I don’t know. I don’t feel like a barren rock and a bunch of stars represent ‘me’ very well.”

“Then how do you explain that the stars contain bits of information about you?”

I frowned. “That I can’t say. But there are things that don’t line up… I think we can agree that this is not a physical place, but I didn’t have a Status when I first arrived here - with the stars in the sky, I mean. And yet you and I were there before I gained my HP and all those things.”

The ghost paused, then said: “That is also true. In which case we should review what we know. But first, tell me everything you know about the world outside and about this Status.”

“Well”, I replied as I rotated the window so that we could both see what it said, “I was given this when I was transferred into the… let’s call it the physical realm, I guess. The world out there is governed by a system that assigns values and names to stuff, as you can see in my Status window I have [Health], [Stamina], [Skills], [Traits] and so on.”

“And you’re a Parasite.”

I grimaced. “Yeah… I really drew the short straw with that randomizer. It turned me into an ant-sized bug that mooches its food from larger creatures and drinks their blood for sustenance.”

“Lovely. What else?”

“It’s a world right out of a fantasy book. There were ants that spoke to each other via telepathy, giant worms - giant to me, anyway. Uhh, what other things? Pointy-eared elves, a knight wearing full steel-plate armour… oh, and freaking gods who handle the system. Not too well, I might add, the System is stuffed with errors and bugs. You know what I said about accidentally killing an animal that I shouldn’t have? That was because I accidentally triggered an exploit. Anyway, the system assigns values to things like health and stamina, as well as [Skills] which let you do stuff, or enhance the effectiveness of actions.”

“And these mean?” the ghost asked, pointing out two items on my Status.

“Right… LV stands for Level, and EXP stands for Experience Points. I’ve got a high modifier because of the randomizer, and choosing a very hard start… or rather, the choice was made for me. Anyway, you gain EXP by… I suppose by defeating other creatures, and once you have enough EXP you gain a level. Finally, you can evolve once you get enough levels, as far as I understand it. Pretty standard RPG mechanics.”

“You ‘can’ evolve? Do you not automatically do so?”

“Fortunately not. I was able to find a place to lay low first, and choose what I wanted.”

The ghost looked pensive for a moment. “And Skill points presumably let you do something with your [Skill]… Let’s get back to that later. What about those Gods?”

I summarised my hearing with Thorgrimm and Irena, noting every detail that I thought could be of some value.

The ghost looked none too pleased when I finished. “About that [Profaned] [Trait]. As you summarise, it sounds like this Thorgrimm god didn’t want you getting his blessing, after he pulled you into that realm of his for an investigation rather than making you some kind of chosen. That is an annoyance, but I suppose it’s not something we can change. What interests me more is that there is apparently some strife and competition between them, to the point where they would implement powerful items with so little testing that those same items might become dangerous even to them.”

“Yeah, that surprised me as well. The way Irena spoke of this Norvek god made it sound like they were playing some game, but there was animosity between them.”

“A game where they use mortals as pawns, I’m sure. The fact that she placed a magic item into the… right, the physical world you called it, cements that. Who knows, maybe one of Norvek’s champions used some unfair exploit to kill her champion and she responded that way.” It tapped a finger against its temple in thought. “And yet, that an exploit would endanger even them, that would imply that… hmm…”

“Some new theory, Blue?”

“What?”

“I’m asking if you cooked up some new theory in your head?”

“Something of the sort, but that’s not what I meant. Why did you call me ‘Blue’?”

“Oh. I mean, I kind of need a name for you, so I figured I’d use that. Your colour is the only feature on your body that stands out.”

“... eh, fair enough. Anyway, if things happen the same way as they did before, I’ll have a lot of time to think once you’re out of here and I’m alone, to spin my theories until you return, so I’ll save my half-baked assumptions for then. Next question… your [Skills].”

“Right. Most of the ones I have, I got from the start. Like you assumed, Skill points let you buy unlocked [Skills], and Bio Points are the same but for racial ones… which I understand are skills tied to the body, rather than something anyone can learn.” I tapped on ‘[Skills]’ on my Status and opened [Mooch] and [Leech] to show Blue.

“Says the same thing as in those stars. I remember that info, so you can skip showing me the other ones. Are there other [Skills] unlocked?”

“Yes, I could purchase several. Here.” I opened my list of unlocked Skills and let Blue take a look.

“You’ve got a whole list here. Why have you only spent two Skill points on [Giant Slayer], which might I add were refunded and not spent on something else?” Blue asked pointedly.

“I got most of my levels after killing the big animal. I barely had time to consider anything.”

Blue waved their hand at the list. “Look. These Skills, [Scout] and [Inspect], sound really useful. And they’re common, so one point a piece, that’s cheap and you’re currently not in a position where you can afford to hoard points ‘just in case’. As for the when? You could’ve made time between your kill and evolving.”

“Well… I’ll admit that I had a few calm moments between things, where I could have spent the points. I was too busy worrying about my immediate survival to plan out my limited resource spending on potentially irreversible decisions”, I defended myself.

Blue sighed and paced back and forth before me, while explaining: “I follow that logic, but if you’re in a situation as precarious as you say you are, you can’t put all your eggs in one basket. Waiting for your bug brain to grow big just from evolving so you can make a more informed decision won’t do us any good if you die before you get to that point. You’ll need to try other ways. Grab the Skills once you’re back outside. Especially this [Inspect] one, it sounds like it could give you good information. I need as much info as you can get if I’m to help you.”

“I picked a fairly good evolution though.”

“The bit about removing the ‘Inferior’ bit from your species? Were there other choices?”

“Yes. Depending on what [Skills] and [Traits] I had, some options presented themselves that would otherwise have been hidden. Or that’s what I believe, anyway.”

“All the more reason to level more [Skills] and get a broader selection. But evolving to a superior variant sounds good… do you remember what the other evolutions were?”

“The descriptions were written in that simple speech again, but I had…” I hummed and counted on my fingers. “I could remove the ‘Inferior’ or go from ‘Hatchling’ to ‘Juvenile’. I could revert to being a Myrmidon Ant of either the Worker, Soldier or Tank class. And there were two special ones named Mantis Ripper and Vampire Baby, that I unlocked for having my skills at a required level.”

“What’d they say?”

“The [Small Parasite Hatchling] described being stronger, smarter and so on, hence why I chose it. The Mantis Ripper would’ve been some kind of reckless berserker thing, and there was mention of it being the ‘Seed of a monster’, whatever that means. The Vampire Baby… would’ve been just that, truth be told I didn’t skip reading it only because it was a rare evo. Its downsides were too egregious.”

“You didn’t skip- wait, don’t tell me you skipped the other ones?”

Blue’s surprised tone and glare - how could a ghost without any facial features even glare at someone?! - shocked me a bit, but I quickly realised my mistake. “... yeah”, I had to admit. “I didn’t think they would be important.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“I know that now.”

The ghost made a motion as if it pinched the bridge of its nose, despite having no nose. “Well... no use crying over spilled milk. But make sure to read the details of your evolution options the next time, no matter how dumbified the text is. It might hold bits of information about the world and its areas, about other species and especially about this System. Invest into [Skills] that sound good to you. That is, buy them and train them. You might unlock more special evolutions. And I don’t need to tell you that if you believe or have a feeling like you’re on the verge of unlocking something important, you should just delay your evolution until you’ve levelled a [Skill] more or done… whatever else. And most important: find out as much as you can and bring it to me the next time you come here.”

“That might be difficult”, I remarked. “See, I had a stroke of luck this first time with the exploit, but killing such a massive creature is not going to happen again unless I get lucky, so it’ll likely be a lot longer before I come back here, and I’ll be loaded with more info than I can share.”

“Then we should find a way for you to either store the information in some manner, or to enable you to come back here more often than during your evolutions. Listen: the way I see it, there are two possible explanations as to my nature. I am either a part of you, split off from your main consciousness and existing in this place. Though if I really am, I wonder why I don’t have any of your memories, or why I can barely do anything here. The other possibility is that I’m a part of the System and meant to be your guide. Giving you pointers, explaining the System and so on. That doesn’t hold up either because I know nothing about this System outside of what you’re telling me. But thinking, wondering and discarding falsities will lead us closer to the truth, which is why I’m telling you what I think.”

“And what about this place?”

“If you ‘retreat’ here during your evolutions, perhaps it is your consciousness withdrawing deep into your body while you change. I propose a revised theory: if this place has components of the System inside it, like your [Skills] and your Health, but also components of you, like this body of yours that I’m talking to right now and the rock that we’re standing on... then perhaps it is a bit of both. A meeting point between the System and yourself, rather than a representation. Or it’s how your mind visualises it.”

Without solid facts, Blue’s theory undoubtedly stood on shaky legs. And yet, it just sounded more correct than the previous ones. “And your two theories about who you are… they both fit with that ‘interface between the System and me’ theory”, I added, “though the latter is much more plausible. Perhaps you are meant to learn along with me?”

“That is possible. No offence but I’m sure you agree that I am the more sharp-minded and inquisitive one of the two of us by a fair margin. Those are qualities that I would attribute to a sort of guide. I want to find out more about myself, and the only way to do that right now seems to be to help you.”

I grimaced at those words, but chose to ignore the implication that Blue’s ‘by a fair margin’ added to its remark. We didn’t have time for my arguing that I’d made some stupid mistakes in my haste, and how that was not indicative of my overall intellect. “I’d be very curious to find out as well. So, my recap is to spend my Skill points on those [Skills] and train them up in hopes of getting better evolutions the next time those roll around. Same deal with levelling up so that I can evolve again before too long. Finally, I should collect all the info I can along the way and find a way to get it to you. Anything else?”

“Try not to draw too much attention to yourself. I don’t know what that [Profaned] [Trait] does but it may have extra hidden attributes, and if you get summoned before the gods for another incident they may notice that you were ‘marked’ already. It might also do something around priests, or locations like a church. Until you know more, consider avoiding those places as much as you can. That way you can try to fly under the gods’ radar.”

“Hah. Imagine if I had some sort of ‘Eidetic Memory’ [Skill] that could let me store knowledge and bring it in here.”

“That would be ideal. Perhaps if I can have more access to your System, I might even be able to peer into that knowledge. Not like I have anything else to do in here.”

“Whew, you’re right… the isolation and boredom must really be getting to you. Pretty sure that’s a torture method in some places.”

Blue shrugged. “It’s not that bad. If I get hallucinations, induced by the onset of insanity, I’ll let you know.”

“Right. As for a Skill that’d store my memories and give you access, that's a big fat No.”

“And why is that?”

I fought off a sudden need to yawn and said: “Because I’m not letting you invade my intimate space like that.”

“I’ve no interest in finding out who you find attractive or what crimes you’ve considered committing, you know. This is entirely for your benefit.”

“I’m putting my foot down on this. Even if you ARE a part of my mind, which we don’t know for certain, I’m forbidding you from going through my memories.”

Blue crossed its arms and made a rotating head motion that would no doubt have been accompanied by an eyeroll, had it had eyes. “Stubborn... but fine. You’ve my word that I won’t snoop, but if you have the opportunity to gain such a [Skill], take it. It’d be too useful for our future meetings to pass up.”

I covered my mouth as another urge to yawn, this one too strong to ignore, came over me. “Ah… sure. Though that might just be ages out, and I have no idea yet what [Skills] will come up… excuse me.” Another yawn, harder yet than before.

“Are you okay?” asked Blue.

“Feeling strangely tired.”

“Interesting… that might be your evolution. You’re changing to something with a larger brain so the process is shutting that down while it adjusts things.”

“Good thought… well since I might not come back…” Another yawn and my vision began to blur. “Given that I might not come back here for a while, it was a nice chat. See you around, Blue.”

“Sure. Don’t get yourself killed out there.”

Before I could drop to the ground and hurt myself - if this body of mine even could get injured - I lowered myself down and laid on my back, looking at the rapidly darkening sky above us. It was similar to when I had been transferred, I thought to myself, before closing my eyes and letting the drowsiness take over.