It's dark again. "I think I'm in a womb, it's either that or the gods lied to me and put me back where they found me." Speculated the larva as she felt her mind wander.
"I can hope though, I can hope that I'm not out floating around in the void or whatever it's called." Stated the larva while trying to move even the faintest of muscles.
~~~
Two months later the larva could finally move, but only with weird and jerky movements.
"I can move!" "If I can move that means I'm definitely in the womb of some woman, sadly I can't think of anything to do in here." Sighed the larva as she explored her new realm of entertainment.
~~~
Five months later and the larva was nearing insanity, time alone takes its toll on all creatures of life.
"So boring, so lonely." "Nothing to do, nothing to do still." Rambled the larva while twisting and turning to pass the time.
~~~
One and a half weeks later, the larva was banging her head on the inside of her eggshell out of pure boredom, but then, out of the blue; a cracking noise was heard.
"What was that!" "Did I crack my skull open!" Panicked the larva as she tried to feel for any pain. "The shape I'm sure is my head feels fine, so that begs the question; what was that noise?" Pondered the larva while trying to listen for anymore sounds
"I've nothing else to do, so the only thing I can do is bang my head on this wall; I'm going to lose so many brain cells." Jested the larva as she started to whack her head on the eggshell once again.
~~~
Many of head slams were had until the bright light of day shinned its radiant light in, this sure brightened the day for the larva in more ways than one
The larva then crawled out of her shell just to be blinded by the bright light of the outside, so blinded in fact that it was the only thing she could think about.
When her eyes fully adjusted to the new sense of light, she came to the theory that everything in this world was huge, for when she looked around; all she could immediately see were giant piles of red rocks that looked like shiny fish roe.
The larva then got the grand idea to scan around and see where the light was coming from, it turns out that it was coming from a half circle like gash behind some of the red rocks.
A horrible realization is now dawning upon this poor little pest of society, one that could change her outlook on life as a whole.
"Why was I born in a cave, why did I have to crack myself out of the womb and why do these bloody stones look so much like eggs!" Despaired the larva while coming onto the cusp of a terrible realization.
"I'm afraid to look down, but I must; I must put an end to this mystery here and now." Decided the larva as she slowly tilted her head down to look at her own body. "I'm a bug!" Cried the larva while promptly fainting on the spot.
~~~
As the spring wind blows, it singles the dawn of a new morning; the dawn of a very unpleasant morning.
"Ugh, what happened yesterday and why does my head hurt so much?" Ruminated Imogen as the thoughts of yesterday hit her in the head like a truck. "No... I can't be a bug; I hate bugs!" Denied the larva while making sure that she's actually awake.
"I hate bugs, but I told myself once that I have to push through no matter the problem; so that's what I'll try to do." Announced Imogen as she turned her attention to the red egg clumps.
"So these rocks have to be my kin, what a horrific turn of events; I just wish I had stayed dead." Whined the larva while letting her weak legs drop her to the ground. "Okay, now to focus on more pressing issues; how do I access my system?" Wondered the larva as she looked around for some kind of inspiration.
"I think I'm supposed to ask the system to open up my status screen, hopefully the system is nice to me; please open my status system." Pleaded the larva while trying to stand up again
Name: Unamed
Race: Tick - Larva stage
Age: 1 day
Gender: Female
Bloodline: Common Forest Tick
Level: 1
Class: none
Hp: 7/7
Mp: 1/1
Str: 2
Vit: 0.7
Def: 4
Int: 2
Agt: 1
Skills: Racial Skill - Blood Absorb and Weak Pierce
"Darn it all, my stats are awful; the gods truly despise me." Frowned the larva as she wiggled her front legs. "How the hell am I supposed to hold a weapon in this body, I'm probably going to get my starting weapon at like level one hundred." Scowled the larva while realizing she was running out of things to do.
"And where's my legendary skill, knowing how my life's going; the gods probably said it was Blood Absorb." Suspired the larva as she felt the urge to kill something. "Well time to look at my status again, I pretty much just skipped to the stats the first time." Admitted the larva while staring off into space.
Name: Unnamed
Race: Tick - Larva stage
Age: 1 day
Gender: female
Bloodline: Common Forest Tick
Level: 1
Class: none
Hp: 7/7
Mp: 1/1
Str: 2
Vit: 0.7
Def: 4
Int: 2
Agt: 1
Skills: Racial Skill - Blood Absorb and Weak Pierce
"Oh no, it says I'm a tick and just when I was starting to think that life couldn't get any worse!" Whimpered the larva as she tried to roll up into a ball. "This must be karma for all the ticks I torched for fun back in my childhood, fate is a cruel maiden." Exaggerated the larva while uncurling just slightly.
"Okay, it says that I'm a larva; I guess that makes sense and it says that I'm a female just like I... WHAT!" Raged the larva as she fully unfurled. "Those cheapskate whores, I can't be a female; I just can't!" Shrieked the larva while rolling over on her back.
~~~
After a few minutes of total despair and sorrow, our larva has somewhat come to terms with her "unfair" fate.
"I need to see this new world and I can't do that in denial, so please tell me what my skills do, system." Asked the larva as she watched the glow of the eggs shimmer off the walls.
*Blood Absorb: A racial skill of almost all the ticks on the strait, it allows you to absorb blood at an extremely fast pace and use that blood to temper your body, but the tempering only works before you become an adult. One of the side effects are that your body gets more and more bloated the more blood you absorb, leading to an untimely death if not careful. Another side effect is that your body takes time to temper, leaving you as an easy snack for predators. And lastly, you can see how much blood you have when this skill reaches level two
*Weak Pierce: You can use your head to weakly pierce another creature's body, mainly to be able to get their blood.
*Skills: Skills are leveled up with Skill Stones and have a max of three levels until they need to be evolved with an Evolution Stone
"Blood Absorb is kind of like a really bad legendary skill, those darned gods cheated me on everything they could!" Snarled the larva while looking up at the roof of the cave. "I'll kill those hell forsaken gods if it's the last thing I do, they ruined my existence!" Declared the larva as she felt her hands wringing the necks of the gods.
"Well it's time to leave now, I would rather not stay around in this cave for the rest of my days, wait; aren't these eggs just free experience?" Realized the larva while feeling a bit sad. "No!" "I can't think that way, I'm leaving them to start their promising lives and that's final." Concluded the larva as she just remembered something important.
"I have to name myself, what will it be; what could it be?" Pondered the larva while sitting still. "I don't know many girl names, but I do remember hearing Imogen once; so that's what it'll be." Proclaimed Imogen as she felt the sun burn her skin.
*System Reassurance: Are you sure you want that name
Then two red and white boxes appeared in front of her, one with "decline" and one with "accept". Since Imogen had no other options, she accepted and didn't really regret her actions.
*System Hoorah: Accepted, you're now known as Imogen, congratulations
"I guess I'm Imogen now, perhaps this newfound sense of identity will help me get through this perilous new world." Hoped Imogen as she spotted a giant worm entering the rut.
The fat and ugly worm barely fit its face in the tiny hole; but it fit in enough to reach the eggs and start devouring them three at a time.
"Welp, this is where I die; the sad part is that I can't even think about saving the eggs." Frowned Imogen while sitting down and awaiting her fate.
~~~
"I've now realized that I'm not a human any more, I can do things humans can't do." Surmised Imogen as she got up and watched the worm move on to the third pile of eggs. "I bet I can jump down there and latch onto that worm without getting so much as scratched, because I've noticed that the worm doesn't have much mobility in here." Smiled Imogen while debating when she should go.
In a flash, Imogen jumped down and to her relief; the worm didn't even so much as look at her; it just kept on eating away at the eggs.
*Passive Skill gained 70/30 luck: You have had really bad luck and really good luck on the same day, so much so that the gods have graciously decided that you deserve this skill. Every important choice you make will have a 70% chance to be influenced by good luck while a 30% chance to influenced by extremely bad luck
Fate seems to not like Imogen today, because as she was working away at reading that text a pair of eyes fell over her. When Imogen finished and looked to her right to see why the light had vanished, she looked into the eyes of the worm and felt strangely compelled to walk into its opening jaws.
But before she could reach the mouth, a dirt chunk fell on its face and broke its focus; leaving Imogen home free to jump on its back.
*Passive Skill gained Negligible Illusion Resistance: gain a small amount of resistance to illusions.
Imogen didn't waste time and hooked onto the worm using Weak Pierce and Blood Absorb.
"This tastes really good, it's sort of like dining at an extremely expensive restaurant and finding the best food item." Explained Imogen as she decided to move seldomly.
~~~
After a few hours, the worm was finishing up the last few eggs and greedily savored the last three for fifteen minutes and then left rut like all was normal, but this time it had a little visitor riding on its back.