First, was the movement. This wasn’t that hard.
“It hurts!” “Yes, yes it does, doesn’t it?”
I looked at my movements, I saw with the insect's eyes. For the first time I not only understood, but FELT the hopelessness of the “law of the jungle”. Here “I” was, an insect, with my primitive eyes, barely able to see but a smudge, expected to somehow survive? No! The cruel gods, or the amoral evolution didn’t give a shit about my survival! As long as enough seeds spread, the next generation will be born. No one cares, because there is no one to care. Just cold statistical reality.
“But I’m not THE insect?” “Are we all not insects in the eyes of those above us?”
And the pain. The pain. “I think I am feeling the pain of being bitten by .. what did I call it again “Noodle Snout?” “Yes, I did, also fuck You ARGH It HURTS”. I felt phantom pain in my flower.
“You.. I? i will love this part! After all, it was my favorite!” - as part of the cruelty of nature, just to increase chances of survival by the smallest percentage, this poor beetle survived. It survived being biten, and poisoned, for a few more seconds. It couldn’t move. It could only feel pain, of being slowly digested.
SSssssSSssssss sSsssss SSsssSSsssSssss ssss
I could only slither in pain. On the periphery I could feel someone's emotions, coming from outside the shell, but they were drowned out by the most primal thoughts of death.
I could not go on. Yes you could you coward, go on. Ssssssshit. Auuuu
I rolled myself into a ball. The emotions and pain replaying itself. My mind paralysed with fear. Hope extinguished, sense of impending doom feeling my guts…. It’s over. It’s all over. Shit.
I could hear my heart beating faster and faster. “You know, it’s not the heights that kill people.. it’s the sudden stop on the fall down”.
|
Fear resistance: -5.9/10 |
|
Condition: Catatonic fear |
I didn’t notice that in my writhing, I nearly completely moved out of my shell. This time however, instead of usual telepathic nonsense, I felt a skill activate.
|
Will of the snakes: 1/10 -> 1.5/10 |
Instead of all the thoughts, I now felt my siblings. And in the distance, I could feel other beings like us. Something, somewhere, connecting us. And the knowledge. I remembered how my mother tried to feed me. And how she protected us at all times. And that I am not alone. I am a snake. I may lie, I may connive, and I may run away when needed. But I. WILL. SURVIVE.
|
Will of the snakes: 1.5/10 -> 2/10 |
|
Fear resistance: -5.9 -> -5.4/10 |
Well as the great god grid shows, starting at a negative level means you have more growth
huh…whu..wha…what the actual f*ck does that mean
@Big-bomb reference to the novel Overgeared, where the mc at the beginning of the story ends up with negative levels, but it is shown that this is an opportunity to grow stronger than others of the same level
@drakensji That’s not how math works if anything having a negative number is a detriment to growth since you would have to grow more to be equal to others
@drakensji Thanks for the book suggestion though
@Big-bomb each level up will bring an increase in stats. Most people start at lv 1 and go up from there, so if they reach lv 100 they achieve +100 per say stat increase. But Grid since he has to start from -2, when he reaches 100 he will have +102 to his stats. I also don't think it's something amazing but i didn't get far in the story and this was just what was explained by the developers who saw him fall to negative levels
@drakensji except this is skills also if someone was at level -2 I’d imagine their stats (if every level gave +1 to all stats) to be -2 therefore by level one they’d have the same stats as everyone else and if that isn’t true and they start with the same quantity of stats then what’s the point of them being at a negative number
@Big-bomb not really sure, the negative levels were because he failed at super important quests one after another that brought him to negative levels. And i imagine there are base stats per level and then bonus points to increase specific stats per level up. I don't remember for sure but if it's like that then while his base stats would be the same as others his bonus stat points would be slightly more
@drakensji I’d assume the bonus stats would be reduced for each level in the negatives otherwise you could just shift between level -1 and 0 for infinite stat points
@Big-bomb it wasn't easy to get negative levels. Only epic level quests had that sort of penalty, and only because he changed class was he at lv 0 at the time. And nobody really knew negative levels existed