The blindingly bright light slowly faded into the darkness of the night, looking up into the night sky Euan dazedly murmured.
"Beautiful"
Trillions of stars spotted the pollution-free sky forming countless foreign constellations, with an occasional shooting star the sight seemed almost ethereal. Though one problem came up, there were absolutely no familiar constellations — not a single one.
In a panic, Euan looked around in search of something to ease his worries, any sign of civilization at the very least.
Where is this? Please tell me that whole thing with the book was a dream. I can't be stuck in some Slandbar of Aturge; this isn't right. Its a prank from the captain for making him wear that pirate suit yea this is all a hoax. "Captain! Where are you-"
His agitated yells were interrupted by the sight of a giant sand colored beetle with dark brown patterns, unlike its Omophron cousins who grow a few millimeters at most this beetle was nearly the size of a coconut. Usually, it wouldn't be an issue if the fact that the beetle wasn't running towards the cause of the commotion, him. Taking into account the dozen or so slightly smaller beetles running alongside it and now you have a small swarm of land piranhas after him.
What are those? Giant beetles? Run I have to run, I can't let them catch me even if it is a dream.
After running quite a bit of distance, an entirely spent Euan sat down in a little nook in the beach dunes; shuddering from the cold of night leaning against the wall he reaches out into the sand with a bit of trepidation of what he might feel.
This tiredness, the wind, and the texture of this sand. This isn't a dream, is it?
As the reality came crashing down on him, his worries shifted from himself towards the captain and his crew. Hoping for their safety, he dusted away what sand he could from his clothes as he got up. Looking around for any giant beetle groups with some nervousness after remembering the size of their mandibles and sighing in relief after seeing none he headed out looking for some vantage point.
I'll look around the beach for a bit if I can't find anything ill head inwards towards the treeline I see in the distance.
After wandering for almost an hour and a few run-ins with a few giant beetle groups, he managed to find a reasonably large boulder. Climbing to the top after quite a bit of effort, he took in the view of the surroundings, or at least a kilometer's worth. The beach was quite large it was roughly a kilometer from the sea to the edge of the beach, reaching into the territory of the forest, so he wasn't able to see too far, while at his two of his sides were an endlessly glistening sea and a wall of trees and shrubbery.
The sea, while beautiful, was not much of a concern, the forest, on the other hand, was a bit of a problem. The sheer amount of trees and shrubbery packed together alone the border made it near impossible to traverse without something to cut down foliage and other things blocking the way. The beach itself was not much either if you didn't take into account the hundreds of giant beetles spread out through his vision. They were mostly grouped up into groups of a dozen each with a coconut sized leader guiding them, though there were a few wanderers.
If my memory serves me right, my boon is The Bestiary; I wonder if I can use the same function I used on the words for the beetles.
Fixing his eyes on one of the wanderers an illusionary roll of parchment unfurled in his vision.
[Sand Beetle]
[Race: Beetle-Sand Beetle
Name: Giant Beetle
Upgrades: none
Aether: 1
Rank: 1
Description: a beetle that makes it's home in the sand, unlike its unranked cousins, this species has absorbed the bare minimum of Aether to become a ranked creature.]
Smiling that his guess was correct, he read through the symbols on the parchment.
So its called a Sand Beetle? And the name part is what I called it; I wonder if it would keep what I call or put down what others call it. And for Aether, it looks like its the reason the sand beetle is so giant.
Wait, if I get this Aether would I become a giant?
He shuddered at the thought of a version of himself over ten times his size hulking around in the street.
There's nothing much on the beach, and the ocean is a no go, so the only thing left is the forest. It's a bit too dense for me to go through, but I might as well check it out close up and see wha-.
Jumping down his thoughts were interrupted by a cracking noise coming from his feet, looking down at the remains of a sandy shell with a pungent green liquid seeping out from the pile of shell and flesh.
"A beetl-?"
His question was interrupted by a wave of sudden darkness, causing him to embrace mother earth headfirst.
An unknown amount of time later in perpetual darkness, his daze was interrupted by the appearance of a book in his vision. Gazing at the Ancient tattered grimoire, he reached out and grabbed it.
So I'm back here again? It should have happened when I stepped on that- Sand Beetle was it? Now that I'm back what do I do, is it something to do with the book?
Opening up the grimoire, he was greeted with a different page, unlike the last time, instead of there being a human illustrated near the symbols was a beetle, a Sand Beetle. Upon reading the Symbols, he froze.
[Page: 1
Race: Beetle-Sand Beetle
Name: Euan Hahn
Upgrades: none
Aether: 1
Rank: 1
Description: a beetle that makes it's home in the sand, unlike its unranked cousins, this species has absorbed the bare minimum of Aether to become a ranked creature. Due to The Bestiary Euan Hahn now can use a Sand Beetle as one of his forms, note reverting to his human form can only be done after a 24-hour cooldown and may require a high amount of Aether to sustain it.]
Panicking at the last sentence, he hurriedly flipped to the first page in his grimoire.
[Page 0
Race: human
Name: Euan Hahn
Rank: 1
Enhancements: none
Aether: 1
Boon: The Bestiary
Description: a ranked human by the name of Euan Hahns, as he has obtained some Aether he is capable of changing into different forms as per the abilities from The Bestiary. Turning back into the human form is temporary and will undo when Euan Hahn is incapable of supplying the amount of Aether needed, the amount of Aether used increases according to the Rank and Enhancements Euan Hahn has, external forces can also affect the amount required. Note that Each has a cooldown of a minimum 24-hours, any increase can be affected by the rank and a few other factors.]
Looking at the greyed out image of himself, he began to quiver at the thought of what was going on. Looking down at his hands holding the grimoire he was a bit relieved at the sight of them, deciding to take things one step at a time he took a deep breath and closed the book, to once more face a blinding light envelope the darkness around him.
Waking up the taste of sand and viscera, he ended up throwing up a bit before wiping away whatever he could. Looking up to the sound of shuffling he was surprised by the sight of a few Sand Beetles surrounding him, jumping up to climb up on the boulder he was overwhelmed by a burning sensation spreading throughout his entire body. Collapsing and screaming in utter anguish he saw his hand slowly transform and shrink, the rest of his body following his hand begun to shrink till he was the size of a coconut and then gradually reform into inhuman — a hard sand-colored carapace with brown patterns running along the top. Six sharp appendages for arms and two antennae above the head, finishing off with a pair of fanglike mandibles.
Remembering the words written in the grimoire as he looked at the towering boulder- which at once was although hard to-climbable, now a hulking monstrosity akin to Mount Everest. Clicking his mandibles together at the unfortunate coincidence of the transformation, he turned with his back facing the rock ready to fight for what small chance at life he had. Though as if fate decided to spare him the Sand Beetles paid no heed to him and ran to the remains of the squashed Sand Beetle, to then begin eating it.
Would this be considered cannibalism?
Not wanting anything more to do with the sight he tried walking past them sneakily, sadly sneaking around in a body that he had for only a few seconds wasn't entirely possible and ended up with one of the Sand Beetles turning his way. Out of fright and instinct he lunged at the Sand Beetle and bit as hard as his mandibles could at the beetle's neck join under the carapace, and with surprising ease managed to crunch through spraying out a bit of greenish fluid. Pushing his head up to overturn the Sand Beetle, he tossed it on its back, and unfortunately its greatest weakness. Unable to turn back over ending the Sand Beetle's life was easy, in a few more crunches to the soft underside of the head the Sand Beetle died after a few twitches.
Looking down at the dead Sand Beetle Euan was filled with an unknown emotion as foreign energy combined with him. The horrid taste of the greed fluid quickly brought him back to his senses, looking around to see if any of the other beetles noticed the entanglement and to his horror over half of them were staring right at him. Back peddling and running towards the opposite direction faster than he imagined possible with his stubby six legs he turned slightly to see if any were giving chase, which ended up with him sprinting even faster after seeing four Sand Beetles only a few feet away from him.
A while later after he collapsed in the sand after finally losing sight of the group, he thought back to what the feeling he got was after killing the Sand Beetle.
If I compare this to some game the book would probably be my account, the pages would be my characters, the race name and name are self-explanatory, the rank is like someone' levels, the enhancements can be something like equipment or abilities. As for the Book or Talent as what the powerfull existence mentioned would be something like a Goldfinger.
His thoughts kept on going till the energy inside of him began to spread throughout him, letting him return to that familiar burning anguish. Collapsing from the pain his body began to change once more, although not as drastically as last time the pain similar to having your nervous system catching on fire didn't lessen at all. Thankfully the lack of vocals in a Sand Beetle kept him from screaming out and attracting more unwanted attention, after the painful ordeal he got up albeit shakily and looked around to see if he was still safe. The first thing he noticed though it may have just been a misconception he felt like he gained some size.
After confirming he was alone, he walked around a bit to familiarize himself with his new six-legged body, it took him a while but before the sun came up he was able to walk properly, among his new appendages his mandibles where the easiest to use due to lack of complicated motions needed for them, open and close was all he needed, the fact that he managed to run so well while being chased was quite astounding though he chalked it up to his desperation and instinct having more control of himself at that moment.