Chapter 5

So I had just leveled up from 1 to 2. Interestingly enough, my health and mana hadn’t been fully restored, as usually happens in role-playing games when your character levels up. My HP stood at 36 and my MP at 43, and the latter was getting lower by the second. The reason for that was that mana was flowing from the ragged, torn wounds the roaches had inflicted on my body.

I didn’t know what would happen when my MP reached zero, but from what I had learned so far, mana was essential for my survival. I had a feeling that if my body was depleted of mana, I would die. But how exactly that would happen, I had no clue.

Would death be instantaneous? Or perhaps I would die slowly as my HP gradually dropped? Would it feel something like suffocating, maybe? Though I didn’t actually need to breathe, as my new body operated without air at all. Or maybe I wouldn’t feel anything? Perhaps I would just grow weaker until my life force completely left me?

But one thing was for sure: I wanted to survive, and to achieve that, I had to find a way to heal.

It was then that I realized something. My body was gradually healing, the damaged flesh regrowing and slowly closing the wounds. I could see that as mana healed my body, my HP went up, which was good.

But the process was too slow, and I couldn’t tell if my body would be able to patch itself up before it ran out of mana. I could see that I was losing mana at an accelerated rate, which meant my body was using this magical energy to heal itself. The amount of mana being depleted was much greater than the amount of HP being restored.

That was fine, though, because I didn’t need to top my HP back up to one hundred percent. I only needed my wounds to heal so that mana would stop flowing out. But from the look of things, it definitely seemed like my body wouldn’t be able to heal itself before it ran out of mana. And after that would begin the process of death. I needed to avoid that at all costs.

But what could I do? What was I supposed to do?

HP: 41

MP: 39

While my health slowly went up, my mana went down extremely quickly. By my rough estimation, I had about a minute before the last of my mana was depleted. I had to do something fast.

My gaze fell upon one of the dead roaches I had killed. Without even thinking about what I was doing, I leaped toward the nearest corpse and started eating it.

Which turned out to be harder than I expected. I didn’t have teeth, only two fangs, so I needed to sink them into the roach’s body and yank viciously to tear off a piece of flesh. I swallowed it down and went for another bite.

At the back of my mind flashed a thought that I didn’t have any sense of taste at all. I didn’t dwell on it, though. I just kept taking one bite after another. As I did so, system notifications flashed before my eyes.

You have received 5 points of biomatter.

You have received 4 points of biomatter.

You have received 7 points of biomatter.

Barely paying any attention to the messages, I kept going, taking bite after bite. I tried to tear off as large chunks of roach meat as I could, swallowing them whole. I was so focused on eating that I didn’t immediately realize the healing process had changed somewhat. Only when I felt a strange sensation in my body did I slow down enough to focus on it.

I realized that the healing process was now working a bit differently. Before, only my mana had been used to heal my wounds, and therefore quite a lot of it had been consumed, which was why it had been draining so quickly.

But now that I had stored some biomatter within my body, it was being processed and used as raw material to regrow my damaged flesh. Thanks to that, much less mana was now being used, drastically decreasing the rate at which it was consumed.

Encouraged by that, I continued to feed. Even though I still didn’t know much about my body and how exactly it operated, I could somehow already tell that I didn’t actually need to eat, that such a concept as hunger didn’t apply to my new form.

Sure, I could consume the bodies of fallen enemies, but I needed it not to survive but for other purposes, such as aiding my body’s regenerative abilities. Even without biomatter, my body could heal itself as long as it had enough mana stored within it. This was the most important element of my survival, and anything else didn’t really matter.

I kept consuming the dead roach. Now that I was no longer at risk of dying, I allowed myself to slow down. Before I knew it, half the roach was gone. At one point, I remembered my inventory. I checked it, paying attention only to the line that interested me at the moment.

Biomatter: 44 / 100

From the look of it, I could currently store only one hundred points of biomatter, and a single roach amounted to about that much. It was good to know.

The biomatter I had already stored within my body was being used to restore my damaged flesh, so the number gradually decreased. I wasn’t sure how much biomatter was needed to heal all my injuries, so I kept going, taking bite after bite.

As I took another one, a system notification I had never seen before suddenly flashed before my eyes.

You have received a genetic fragment: Chitin Plate (Shard) (Rank I).

That was interesting. That was definitely new. I decided to put off questions about what exactly it was, why I needed it, what I could do with it, and anything else along those lines for now. I wanted to deal with things one step at a time. First, heal up. Then deal with this new piece of information.

So I continued to consume the corpse. The body of the roach was quickly diminishing. And then it was gone, as if it had never even existed.

For a moment, I just stared at the empty space before me, mildly surprised that I had just consumed the entire thing. I quickly got over it, though, and checked the same line in my inventory again.

Biomatter: 77 / 100

I had consumed about one hundred points of biomatter, but some of it had already been used to regenerate my damaged flesh.

I quickly checked the rate at which my mana was being consumed and was pleased to see that it had slowed down dramatically. I would now definitely have more than enough left by the time my body was fully healed.

A couple of minutes later, my body was finally fully healed, leaving not a scar behind, as if I had never even been injured. I checked a couple of my vital stats.

HP: 100

MP: 31

Now that my body had fully healed, my HP was back to 100. As for my mana, I still had 31 points left. Now that the regeneration process was over, the consumption of mana had returned to its normal, fairly slow rate. I could relax for now. I survived!

Since I’d just leveled up from 1 to 2, earning one stat point, it was time to allocate it and see what advantages it would give me.

I quickly assessed my options. My total health points stood at one hundred. Ditto for my mana points. I really needed to increase both values, as both were equally essential for my survival.

If my HP reached zero, I would die. It was as simple as that. And if my MP reached zero, I wasn’t sure what would happen, but I assumed it would result in death all the same, whether it came quickly or slowly.

I had found a way to heal: by consuming corpses of the defeated enemies, I could accelerate the healing process without increased mana consumption. But I had yet to find a way to replenish mana, as it definitely wasn’t regenerating on its own.

I also noticed that when in battle or performing powerful moves that required a lot of effort, like the time when I tried to get myself free from the air vent cover I had gotten stuck in, mana was consumed much faster. So MP definitely seemed even more important than HP, and I figured it would be wise to increase it first.

However, when I tried to allocate the stat point I had earned to MP, nothing happened. Apparently, that wasn’t how it worked. I then shifted my attention to my attributes. I had three of them: Body, Mind, and Magick. Each of the three currently stood at 0.

Clearly, if I couldn’t increase my HP or MP directly, then they should be increased when I put stat points into the respective attributes. I tried to summon additional information on the attributes, but none was given to me. I guessed I had to figure out how things worked by myself.

I took another look at my attributes. I figured Body governed how much HP I had and Magick how much MP I had. I was pretty sure that allocating the stat point into Magick would increase the total amount of MP my body could have.

But before doing so, I checked my basic damage outputs. Bite stood at 5, Stab at 15, and Slash at 10. I was pretty sure I couldn’t increase any of the types of damage I could deal by simply allocating stat points to those values. Still, just to make sure, I decided to try it.

Sure enough, nothing happened when I attempted to allocate the stat point to one of the three damage values. With that out of the way, I gave a mental command to allocate the stat point into Magick, and it worked.

Magick: 0 → 1

I then checked my MP once more. To my great surprise and disappointment, its total amount remained at 100.

MP: 38 / 100

Was I wrong, then? Did allocating stat points into my attributes not actually increase the total amount of my health and mana points? But then how were those values supposed to increase? And what did increasing Magick from 0 to 1 accomplish?

I was at a loss. Apparently, there was a different way to increase my total health and mana points. As for increasing Magick, it had to accomplish something, that was for sure. Perhaps every action would now consume a little less mana than before? Perhaps the more points I had in Magick, the more efficiently my body managed mana.

That had to be it. If that wasn’t the case, then I had no idea what else Magick could govern.

After that, I decided to take a moment to examine the entire status screen.

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Basic Identity  

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Name: Nathan Morgan  

Species: Xmorph  

Evolution Stage I: “Lesser Form”  

Level: 2  

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XP: 50 / 600

HP: 100 / 100

MP: 36 / 100

CP: 0

SP: 0

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Abilities: None  

Skills: Night Vision  

Traits: Fear of Fire  

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Attributes  

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Body: 0

Mind: 0

Magick: 1  

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Damage Output  

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Bite: 5  

Stab: 15  

Slash: 10  

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Inventory  

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Biomatter: 77 / 100  

Active Fragments: 0 / 1  

Stored Fragments: 1 / 3 (Chitin Plate (Shard) (Rank I))  

Core Fragments: 0 / 1  

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Evolution Requirements  

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Level 5 (Current: 2)  

Biomatter: 77 / 100  

Core Genetic Fragments: 0 / 1  

Genetic Fragments: 0 / 2  

Genome Stability: above 60% (Current: no data)  

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Nest Status  

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No Nest Detected  

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So the total values of HP and MP and the three damage outputs stayed the same. I definitely needed to find a way to increase those values to make myself stronger, sturdier, badder.

I noted that I had 77 points of biomatter in my inventory. My gaze fell on the empty space where the body of the roach had been moments ago. I had consumed the entire thing, converting it into biomatter, which was now stored inside my body. I had already figured out that I didn’t need to eat. Biomatter was used solely for facilitating the healing process and perhaps some other processes as well.

And from the look of it, I could keep it inside my body for as long as needed. There was no reason not to top off my internal storage. I had defeated four roaches in total, so there were three more corpses. I stepped up toward one of them and took a few bites out of it.

Biomatter: 100 / 100

I was now full of biomatter. Out of interest, I tried to take another bite. I swallowed it, but a second later, it came out of my stomach and back to my mouth.

I spat it out and saw that it no longer looked like a piece of flesh. Instead, it looked like a formless mass. It was completely black. It didn’t smell, and it looked dry. As I focused on it, a single line of text appeared in my vision.

Biomatter: 5

Alright then. I then called up my stats again and focused on my inventory once more. This time, I looked at another line.

Stored Fragments: 1 / 3 (Chitin Plate (Shard) (Rank I))

This was what I had received after taking one of the bites of the first dead roach. It was interesting. From checking out the evolution requirements for the next form, I had learned that I needed to collect two genetic materials.

So [Chitin Plate (Shard) (Rank I)] was apparently one such genetic material, or fragment. Those fragments could be acquired from defeated enemies. I’d received one from consuming the first dead roach, so I couldn’t help but wonder if I could get some more from the other three corpses. It was definitely worth investigating further.

But first, I needed to get rid of the biomatter stored within me. I wondered if I could induce regurgitation at will. I tried, and it actually worked: a glob of black substance came out of my mouth and dropped to the floor. It looked exactly like the previous one, only twice as large.

Encouraged by this, I set about ejecting biomatter from my stomach. As it turned out, I had a natural ability to regurgitate on command. Or rather, from within my body, considering that since I didn’t need to eat, my body probably didn’t even have a stomach, at least not in the usual sense of the word.

Still, I decided to refer to the inner compartment of my body where biomatter was stored as a stomach, for lack of a better term. I also quickly learned I could eject a glob worth 10 points of biomatter at a time. So after ten instances of regurgitating, I had completely emptied my stomach.

After that, I resumed eating the half-eaten corpse from which I had already taken a few bites. After some time, I finally received a message I had been waiting for.

You have received a genetic fragment: Chitin Plate (Shard) (Rank I).

I finished the corpse, completely consuming it. After that, I immediately ejected all the biomatter and turned my attention to the next dead roach. Halfway through eating it, I received another system message.

You have received a genetic fragment: Fang (Shard) (Rank I).

That was interesting. This was a different fragment than the previous two, both of which had been the same. I also remembered that I could carry only three genetic fragments at once. I checked my inventory once again.

Stored Fragments: 3 / 3 (Chitin Plate (Shard) (Rank I), Fang (Shard) (Rank I), Chitin Plate (Shard) (Rank I))

A thought occurred to me. Could I combine fragments of the same type? I decided to try, issuing a mental command for the two Chitin Plates to merge, and it actually worked.

Stored Fragments: 2 / 3 (Chitin Plate (Shard x2) (Rank I), Fang (Shard) (Rank I))

Sweet! I had freed a slot for another fragment. I finished eating the corpse but received no more fragments. So it definitely looked like a level 1 roach yielded only one fragment. But sure enough, it could be different for larger or higher-level enemies.

After ejecting the biomatter, I began on the final corpse. I received another [Chitin Plate (Shard) (Rank I)] from it, which I promptly combined with the previous one, and one hundred biomatter. This time, I didn’t regurgitate the latter, as there were no more corpses to eat. I checked my inventory once more.

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Biomatter: 100 / 100

Active Fragments: 0 / 1

Stored Fragments: 2 / 3 (Chitin Plate (Shard x3) (Rank I), Fang (Shard) (Rank I))

Core Fragments: 0 / 1

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A thought occurred to me. Could I put [Chitin Plate (Shard x3) (Rank I)] into the active slot, and what would happen if I did? It should activate it, right?

I decided to test it out. As soon as I gave the mental command to insert the fragment into the active slot, it immediately worked, and a system message flashed before my eyes.

Chitin Plate (Shard x3) (Rank I) has been inserted into the Active Fragment slot: +30 HP

I checked my health points and indeed saw that the total number had increased to 130.

HP: 100 / 100 (+30)

Moreover, my body began to process some of the biomatter stored within, and my current HP gradually rose until it reached 130, the new maximum.

Awesome!

I then swallowed some of the globs of biomatter I had expelled earlier to top off my internal storage back to one hundred.

After all this was done, I checked my inventory once more.

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Biomatter: 100 / 100  

Active Fragments: 1 / 1 (Chitin Plate (Shard x3) (Rank I): +30 HP)  

Stored Fragments: 1 / 3 (Fang (Shard) (Rank I))

Core Fragments: 0 / 1

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I then checked the evolution requirements tab.

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Level 5 (Current: 2)

Biomatter: 100 / 100

Core Genetic Fragments: 0 / 1

Genetic Fragments: 0 / 2

Genome Stability: above 60% (Current: no data)

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It sure registered that I now had 100 points of biomatter, so at least one requirement for evolution was now met. But I noticed that the line for Genetic Fragments was still empty, even though I had [Chitin Plate (Shard x3) (Rank I)] in the active slot and [Fang (Shard) (Rank I)] in one of the storage slots in my inventory. But the system wasn’t counting any of them for some reason.

Odd.

But before I could give the matter any more thought, an all-too-familiar voice sounded in my head.

You’re learning. Good.

I immediately knew who the voice belonged to. It was the Queen. So apparently, she was still alive and could still mentally reach me despite all the distance I’d put between myself and the nest.

Dang it.