Chemical-Spider

Hey Chemical-Spider here, I'm changing to 1 chapter every week, on Friday, because I'm currently settling into a new job. you may still get 2 chapters a week, but they may be rare.

After a really boring 8 hour wait for her exoskeleton to harden, she left her cave to hunt. Not knowing what to expect, she took her time walking around. She was excited and nervous at the same time, on one hand… Leg, the world was new to her, everything was a new experience separate from her pre-existing memories and on the other it was filled with new dangers and situations that she had never dealt with before.

She relied on her vibration sense skill to navigate around, going away from large creatures and towards smaller creatures. She finally came across another Forest Dormouse, a burrow of them in fact. The burrow had three entrances, and she spent a bit of time watching them from above from a tree, their burrow went under the tree, into its root system.

After a few minutes of watching the entrances, she decided that no more mice were entering or leaving the burrow, and she took a while covering two of the entrances with sticky webs. A moment of hesitation washed over her as she thought about if it was cruel to trap them in this manner. Some deliberation took place, and she eventually settled on the ‘survival of the fittest’ rule of nature and the principle of natural selection.

She entered the remaining hole to the burrow and slowly made her way into the main chamber. She stumbled upon a litter of 5 dormice seeming nursing from their mother and a felt tinge of guilt tickling at the edge of her mind. She pushed it aside and moved closer to the mother and sunk her fangs into its soft flesh, filling it with venom.

Moments later it perished, unforeseen by Vanessa the venom was still active by the time it made it to the mother’s mammaries and subsequently its milk poisoned the litter. They twitched on the ground before also becoming still and perishing.

[Notice: Forest Dormouse Defeated. 2 experience points received]

[Notice: Forest Dormouse Defeated. 2 experience points received]

[Notice: Forest Dormouse Defeated. 2 experience points received]

[Notice: Forest Dormouse Defeated. 2 experience points received]

[Notice: Forest Dormouse Defeated. 2 experience points received]

[Notice: Forest Dormouse Defeated. 2 experience points received]

[Notice: Chain-kill, 6 experience points received]

[Notice: Milestone Achieved ‘Chain Kill X 6’]

[Notice: The System has awarded you 20 configuration points.]

[Notice: You have levelled up, you have been awarded 5 configuration points]

[Notice: You have levelled up, you have been awarded 5 configuration points]

‘That makes me feel terrible’

[Answer: Your mentality was one of the selection criteria for the reincarnation initiative]

‘That doesn't make me feel any better’

The System didn’t reply to that, and a collection of squeaks outside drew her attention away from the litter. She made her way outside to find no less than three dormice stuck in the sticky web and a fourth trying to free one of them. She watched in real time as the fourth mouse also got itself stuck.

‘How are you not extinct?’ Vanessa pondered to herself.

[Answer: Common creatures such as the Forest Dormouse are generated by dungeons, then escape to the wild.]

[Extension: These were most likely generated by the nearby dungeon.]

‘There are dungeons in this world?’

[Answer: Affirmative.]

‘Once again, that was rhetorical.’

[Answer: Acknowledged. Closing connection.]

She closed in on dumb Dormice, She injected venom in to all of them and waited for them to die.

[Notice: Forest Dormouse Defeated. 2 experience points received]

[Notice: Forest Dormouse Defeated. 2 experience points received]

[Notice: Forest Dormouse Defeated. 2 experience points received]

[Notice: Forest Dormouse Defeated. 2 experience points received]

Curious about how her stat’s looked now that her exoskeleton hardened, and she had levelled up twice.

She also opened the acquisitions menu to browse the selection of abilities that may prove useful to her in the future.

‘Purchase Magical Affinity’

[Notice: Magical Affinity costs 20 configuration points, purchasing will leave you with 10 configuration points. This is a non-refundable action. Proceed?]

‘Yes’

She felt a warm feeling in her abdomen, it was pleasant at first, but that didn't last long as it started to burn, and the burning started to spread throughout her body. She collapsed onto the ground, unable to hold herself up under the strain. ‘AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!’ She screamed so loud in her mind that if she had vocal cords, she would have torn them to shreds.

Eventually the pain subsided almost as quickly as it came, she collected herself from the floor and decided to check her stats after the acquisition.

She also looked for new acquisitions and her new telepathy skill

She took a moment looking at her skills. ‘So mana blade is another freebie?’

[Answer: Affirmative. Any creature with the mana manipulation skill has the potential to use mana blades.]

‘How do I use mana?’

[Answer: You need to focus on the warmth inside you and guide it to wherever you would like it to go.]

[Extension: Telepathy does not need you to guide the magic. It will draw directly from your mana pool]

Vanessa follows the system's instructions and after quite a few attempts she manages to form the mana blade. She slashes the blade at a nearby tree and despite being so small she manages to cut a sizable chunk out of the tree.

‘Oh wow, this is cool, does it work just as well on stone?’

[Answer: Affirmative]

[Extension: Unless magical in nature or warded in some form, a mana blade will cut through most materials quite easily.]

Her body suddenly felt heavy and she almost collapsed. ‘Woah that disconcerting’

[Answer: Mana usage can rapidly strain your body.]

[Extension: Repeatedly draining and refilling your mana can acclimate your body to mana, increasing your capacity and efficiency.]

‘That’s good to know, you can go now.’

[Answer: Acknowledged. Closing connection.]

Vanessa returned to her cave to rest her tired body. The sun had lowered itself towards the horizon, colouring the world in an intense amber glow, even more vivid than her last world.