🙡 Chapter 2.2 🙣

Towards the forest

The carnivore rotated its head  right and left while looking at me in befuddlement—it must have never seen anything like me—that makes two of us.  I, once again, remembered the poor turtles dying before they managed to get to the ocean…

Think! I don’t want to fight—I don’t even know how! It's unlikely it wants to fight either—it's a wild animal, senseless risk is not the best method of survival. I just have to make myself less appealing than alternative sources of food.

Operation pufferfish—start! I tried extending all my new appendages like spiky barbs, then putting them closer to me, then extending them again! 

*AWOWOWOO!* - a cute high pitched howl came out of my mouth, my best rendition of lions roar— a complete failure on this front, but maybe it sounded too cute to kill? I could feel my face and tentacle-tips getting hot from embarrassment

It jumped off the fantastical floating rock in surprise. My gamble seems to have worked out, as it decided to search for a less bizarre snack somewhere else.

I will remember this humiliation you stupid bird… I will get you! After I become a REAL villainI will create a fast food chain, Tentacle Fried Chicken, which will underpay its employees, sentencing your kind to be food for eternity! Mwahaha!

Let’s not risk that bird discovering an inner anime school girl getting curious about the tentacle monster...I need to find somewhere to hide! ...but there was nothing around me, flat grasslands around me… the only thing in sight being an outline of a forest a kilometer or so away, and for now that will have to do… What? You want to tell me a forest is more dangerous than plains? Maybe! Or maybe not! The logical choice between an area that I know is dangerous, versus one that is unknown should be obvious.

Looking above, I could see quite a variety of different flying creatures—at least half of them breaking multiple laws of physics I still remembered. No planes in sight, but there were quite a few dots circling around far above… even some lines... Whatever they are, they are quite likely huge.

I didn’t see much floating at the same height as me though. Actually, I haven’t seen a single floating thing apart from me, that rock—which wasn’t a rock after all, but an air-scallop of sorts, now slightly opened, with feathered combs filtering the air—and a flat kite-looking thingy to my east, doing barrel rolls. 

I looked at my tentacles again, their purple color definitely not fitting with the local plants, which are mostly green… well, above the stream we go. Or fly. Or whatever floats your eldritch-goat.

❁

Wiggle wiggle wiggle, slowly swimming forward… It is very relaxing. Helps ma... Octopus, forget their worries, while enjoying the sights of the new world. Less exotic looking than one might expect, but then, even on earth, convergent evolution was a thing. That’s why everything looked like crabs!

I started noticing some regularities in the covenant markers”. 

Firstly, the ability seems extremely overpowered. If I could make out the edges of the creature, hear it, or even if I was just aware it was there, it was enough to prompt the marker to appear. 

Secondly, the vast majority of creatures had small and dim markers, implying they are not worth many points. That would make sense, contrary to what movies imply, killing a single butterfly is unlikely to cause a massive impact on the world. Even if this one survives, another is likely to die in the future. Second, there appears to be more than one type of marker. Some had multiple ones- so I saw a lizard creature which had both red and green ones. I will have to analyse that further later.

Finally - there is an anomaly.. And I’m not talking about me. A mosquito-like—not even reincarnation saves from these bastards it seems—insect, despite being a small creature, seems to give the highest amount of “red” points out of any creature I’ve seen! Even more than the snakes or cows! And it’s not as if they were some super rare mutation, at any moment there are a few of them in my sight. Are they super venomous? Or maybe carriers of super HIV.. or even ligma?!

The next time I saw one get closer to me I looked more carefully at it… and I noticed it also has a cockroach looking carapace on the back.. I was wondering about what to do with it- killing it might be the best way to increase my points! 

But the fact they are worth so much seems suspicious.. Something must be different about them, what if they are super venomous? Or super aggressive? Or like asian hornets, if you kill them and get their fluids on you, it calls all the others to attack you?

As I was getting closer to it to observe it… the insect took it as an invitation for a meal—I would look tasty covered in teriyaki sauce—It came by and landed on me… sending shivers up my whole body.  I mean a mosquito-roach! About tenth of my size! Instinctively, one of my tentacles just flew and swatted it.

… welp here goes all the considering and worry. I looked left and right. Nothing seems to be happening, other insects are not suddenly swarming in, I don’t feel dizzy.. My skin does feel yucky though... Bleh! Should I try going down and washing up in the stream? But I won’t be able to go up again…

Nah, let's leave that for later, when I lose my altitude naturally. Actually, will I even be able to walk with this body? Or will I suddenly become like a fish out of water (or air).

The forest is not far, let's consider this after I get there. Maybe I could try climbing trees, and using them as the source for my floating...?

❂

By the time I reached the treeline, it was well past noon. The trees were actually much further than I expected for a simple reason...  They are HUGE. Like, really! 100 m tall-huge! And I could see crowns of even bigger ones in the back! By that time I'd exhausted all of my altitude, and had to jump back into the air every few meters—I decided to postpone learning how to walk until I got to my destination... Totally not procrastination and laziness... I can already tell getting fat will be a problem—Not to mention, the discovery that my new body gets tired. And thirsty. And hungry. 

From the positive things, I got some points! And they did come by themselves! The only price being... getting covered in insect blood and viscera!

Wait, what points you ask? That’s simple! It seems my new career path gives me some kind of points every time I affect things with a marker. I suspect it is related to the reward for participating in this covenant I was promised.

If only I knew what to do with this. Or how to use it towards my immediate survival needs.

Fortunately, I had a plan. The water source was under me, tiredness just required a nice rest in the shade. While eating, I shall try fishing! It should be safe for this body - squids and octopuses eat fish! And thanks to my ability, I knew there were many small fish in the river. And the more upstream I go, the shallower it gets! At this point, using tree branches, I should be able to create a small dam around half of the stream! Over time some fish will fall in, and then I will block the entrance!

Mwahaha! I’m a genius! Wait... couldn’t I just eat those insects? Oh no... oh no…! What is going on? My memories of animals and people feeding on insects are being lost behind the fog of being reincarnated? Welp, fishing it is then.

Reisinling

Hello again my squids and octopuses

Just realised I only posted 4 out of promised 5 chapters yesterday, so 2 chapters today, next one in ~5h (want to spread them out for more readers mwahaha). If you want any stylistic changes, ask now, before they become set in stone! First "human" contact in 4? chapters, and FMC soon after. I also noticed the pretty chapter decorations don't work on my mobile browser- does it work for you?

Here, a good educational video about a crab example of convergent evolution : PBS eons