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No one starts their journey with mindless slaughter, be it a bat or a human. Everyone sets off silently -scared and lost. A personality is like a puzzle: pieced together by the life experiences of the individual. That’s why everyone is different. Unique characters everywhere. Similarly, Creeps story also starts, not with a bang, but with a hug.

The first time he opened his wide brown eyes, he was tightly clinging to a wet stalactite. His body was soft and hairless. He was a tiny-pink baby, not bigger than an avocado. However, the moment he opened his eyes, the slight twitches of his muscles, the warm-subconscious facial rubs, they all ceased. His body turned stiff like a corpse. It was the result of something emotionless erasing the former presence, and taking control. A robotic memory had emerged from the abyss.

The infant bat was no more.

This sudden emergence resulted in the removal of everything from the infant’s behavior: gestures and subconscious movements. Everything which made him a living being was replaced with a motion of precise calculative measure. However, even those movements took some time to appear. In the initial stages of his birth, creep was nothing more than a breathing corpse: a naked canvas, an empty storybook.

The first time he opened his eyes and looked at the world, he experienced a sensory overload: the magnificent glowing roof, the warmth entering his body from the stalactite, the darkness which swirled beneath like fog; the sounds of his heartbeat; the drop of clear water which glistened in its eyes as it fell from the other protruding spikes, and disappeared into the swirls.  

It took this nameless entity sometimes to begin thinking. He was unresponsive to the call -the clicking sound of his fellows- which echoed all around him.  He wasn’t alone in the wide cave. He could see other beings similar to it in shape and size, clinging to the stalactites. His eyesight wasn’t good, however. Therefore he could only see in a certain range around himself.

Once he was done observing his surroundings, he closed his eyes and stopped moving. It was like he was waiting for something, for someone to give him a job, a calculation, a problem to solve. And only once his wait earned him nothing, but a touch of emptiness, did he decide to continue performing the task which its body had been performing before his arrival. Hunger does wonders.

Without questioning the source of these tasks, he quickly moved onto complete them one by one. He had four tasks at hand: clinging to the stalactite, drinking the dripping nectar, sleeping (if necessary), and wait for further instructions. He was already clinging to the stalactite, so he went directly to the next task, which was to drink the nectar. He didn’t initially know what it meant to drink, but mimicking his neighbor’s actions, he managed to sail through the task.

Warmth entered his body every time he licked the stalactite.

Half an hour later, he was observing his surroundings when he noticed drops of nectar falling down the spiked end of the stalactite. Curious, he positioned himself upside down on the stalactite and put his mouth on the spiked end. He didn’t have to lick the stalactite anymore. A constant stream of warmth entered his body. It provided a great sensation but did nothing else. However, a set of foreign noises interrupted his thoughts once he stopped moving.

[Congratulations for breaking the norm and taking your first steps towards being a wise bat.]
[Wisdom stat has been created.]
[Wisdom +1]

[Skill: Computing unlocked]
[Requirement: Unlock wisdom stat before every other.]
[Computing: Increases your problem-solving ability.]
[Lv-1][Passive][INT+2/level]
[Intelligence stat has been created.]

The noises intrigued him. The words felt unfamiliar to him, but their meaning remained etched in his mind. Although the new information about his wisdom increasing intrigued him, he was still not wise enough to understand the underlining meaning. Therefore, setting any questions related to those words on low priority, he moved onto drinking the nectar.

The nectar was like a potion full of energy. Twenty-four hours later, a coat of shiny black hair had grown to cover his bald body. His body had grown one size larger -so he was the size of a ripe avocado- and his limbs were thicker and stronger. While his feet and face still remained their pinkness, he didn’t look like a weak-vulnerable mass of wrinkled skin and bones anymore.  

The noises he didn’t know the meaning of returned to pester him again when his stomach filled to its utmost capacity and his body stopped changing.

[Healthy eating is the key to growing stronger.]
[Constitution stat has been created.] [Strength stat has been created.]
[STR +1; CON +1;WIS +2]

The noises gave it a new set of information (it didn’t know what to do with them) before silently disappearing. He looked around his surrounding for answers but found nothing of use. With nothing to do, he closed his eyes and went back to drinking.

Another day of drinking and sleeping passed, but when the noises woke it up this time, its body had only grown slightly bigger than yesterday. The noises, however, sounded slightly different than before.

[You have entered the final day of your infant growth period.]
[CON +1; WIS+2; INT +1]

Although the language was still foreign to him, thanks to the meaning which he somehow retained, he knew that his first task was coming to an end. He looked around to see how he was doing but saw that there was only one other bat in his range of sight. It was twice bigger, much healthier, and meaner looking than him. Their eyes met. The thing clicked its tongue and jumped from the stalactite- toward the darkness beneath.

By this moment, he was wiser by five points from the day of his birth, and his thinking had expanded, slightly. If one says he was brain dead at the moment of his birth, then now, thanks to the nectar that he had been slurping daily, he had grown enough brain cells to spark a deluge of questions into existence. Why did the bat leave? Why did the noises disturb him every day? His thoughts had started growing slowly. However, it still wasn’t sharp enough. Hence, when no one answered him, he placed his questions at the lowest step on the priority ladder and went back to feeding.

On the last day of his growth period, the noises woke him again. He clicked his tongue, looked around, and saw that the once empty stalactites now had passengers hanging on them. After three full days of feeding, resting, and observing, he had changed a lot from his initial bald state. However, while there were infants who had grown up to the size of a juicy pineapple or even a melon, our emotionless hungry beast was only the size of a green apple. Although he had possibly drunk the most, he was the smallest of the bunch.

If he had a mother, she would have abandoned him in a heartbeat in the wild, that’s how bad he looked when compared to the other bats his age.

Nonetheless, he was special. Because the ‘why’ which had come into existence in his life upon achieving five points in wisdom now held a deeper significance than before. Why do we have to feed? Why do some leave and others don’t? Why am I not growing like the others? Why does the roof glow?

His questions were many, but he hadn’t found a single answer yet. His thoughts couldn’t be accurately articulated either. They were a simple, jumbled, mess of ideas. The noises had another message to give him. Abruptly interrupting his thoughts like always, they told him that his initial growth phase was now over.

[You have successfully completed your three-day long growth phase.]
[You have matured from an infant to a youngling.]
[WIS +3; STR +1; CON +1]
[You have reached level one.]
[No stat points available.]

 Eventually, the day arrived. He, together with every other infant that had stopped feeding, was called to leave the colony.

Creep-07
Level 1 Species Young Cave BAt
Health 17/17 Stamina 15
Mana 0/45 Gender Male
Titles
Emotionless,
Stats:
Strength 2 Intelligence 9
Agility - Wisdom 10
Constitution 3 Charm -
Skills:
Passive Computing(1), Sound sense(1),
Active Echolocation(2)
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