Chereads / The Strait Of Cosmos / Chapter 11 - The Beginning of True Evolution

Chapter 11 - The Beginning of True Evolution

Imogen, who just got her class, has begun checking out her status. Though one thinks she'll be quite disappointed.

Name: Imogen 

Race: Tick - Adult 

Age: 1 

Gender: Female

Bloodline: Common Forest Tick

Level: 6

Class: Heart Defender

Blood: 260

Hp: 20/20

Mp: 5.5/5.5

Str: 12

Vit: 2

Def: 26

Int: 11

Agt: 10

Quests: 2

Skills: Racial skill - Blood Absorb 2.0, Weak Pierce, 70/30 Luck, Negligible Illusion Resistance, Fast eyes, Fractured Language Comprehension, Heart Plate, Metal Heart and Steel Soul

 "It's not much different, but why the hell did it lower my hit points?" Said Imogen, wanting to yell.

 "This is a joke right, I just picked a class and it lowered my hit points!" Yelled Imogen, filling up with hate.

 "It may have upped my defence by what?" "Three points, but it lowered my hit points by point five!" Objected Imogen, feeling like the world was spinning.

 "How the hell is that fair... life is never fair to me." Whined Imogen, temper cooling. 

 "I guess I'll just have to deal with it for now, I don't really see too much of a need for stat points." Sighed Imogen.

 "Well, actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I don't even have a goal for this life." Said Imogen in a dreary tone.

 "Why do I even crave power?" "I don't need it." Pondered Imogen.

 "I guess it's because I was so helpless in my last life that I want to control my own fate in this one." Understood Imogen. 

 "Also, I didn't have much of a love life in my last and don't really want to have sex with a bug." Said Imogen, obvious to the humans walking past her.

 "I mean I don't want to be in LOVE with a bug, why would I think anything else." Said Imogen, embarrassed by herself. 

~~~

 "Anyways I need to go find something to do, life sure is boring." Grumbled Imogen, complaining again. 

 "I never checked out the quest tab, maybe it can give some direction to my life." Said Imogen hopeful.

 "System, open my quest tab please." Said Imogen hoping that her respect would further her own gain.

*Quests: 

Quest 1 - Kill the worm who ate your family, exact revenge.

Quest 2 - Evolve, you are now a tick adult and that means you can start your path towards true evolution.

 "Never mind, what a load of crap." Said Imogen, displeased. 

 "Those are literally the missions I set for myself, what the hell system." Griped Imogen unhappily.

 "Actually I changed my mind, with these missions, I get rewarded for doing the things I was going to do anyways." Said Imogen suddenly feeling very pleased. 

 "I really like this, I take back everything I ever said about you, system." Said Imogen with vigor.

 "I have an idea of what I want to do, finally." Said Imogen her tone shifting to borderline ecstatic. 

 "I'm going to go-" Imogen tried to say, but was cut off by another tick trying to bite into her carapace.

 "Life is being awful to me once again." Said Imogen depressed. 

 Imogen then got up to see who her attacker was and was surprised to see that it was another tick. She started to have a stare down with the other tick, but the other tick broke eye contact and ran towards her.

 Imogen was the first to act and jumped on top of the other tick, trying to pierce its shell.

 The other tick managed to barely shake off Imogen before she bit into it. The tick attempted to jump onto Imogen, but missed because of how much faster Imogen was than it. 

 Imogen then jumped onto the tick and pierced it's shell, the stat differences were just too vast for the other tick to win on battle experience alone.

*System Reminder: You've slain a Male, Adult Tick

 "That was another tick, system, tell me how the hell it became an adult."

*System Answer: I extract harder requirements in trade for a faster evolve/stage progression speed.

 "And to think that I was just starting to like you; did I ask for harder requirements?" Said Imogen irked.

 "Never mind, I already passed through stage progression so there is no reason to be angry." Suspired Imogen, calming down. 

 "Hmm, why would another tick attack me?" "I just don't get it." Asked Imogen, confused.

 "It must've been mad or something, perhaps it just couldn't find any blood to drink." Speculated Imogen. 

 "Darn it, now I can't remember what my plan was." Said Imogen, once again angry. 

 "Well, I have a better plan now so it doesn't matter as much; it still hurts though." 

~~~

 "My plan is simple, I'll murder anything and everything in sight while looking for that murderous worm." Stated Imogen, impressed with herself.

 "I guess I should get looking now, no use just standing around." Said Imogen ready to begin her trek.

 "Wait… Is that a sapling? I've never seen a sapling in this forest before, how strange." Noted Imogen.

 "I'm curious if I've just never noticed a sapling before or if I have genuinely never seen one before, this world sure is mysterious." 

 "I guess it doesn't matter though, I don't know why my mind always drifts off to trivial topics." Laughed Imogen, trying to lighten up the mood.

 "I should be thinking about battle tactics or how to fix my nonexistent love life, this is why I would never cut it as a technician." Suspired Imogen while watching a dragonfly fly about.

 "I can't believe that I haven't run into anything strong that isn't a worm or a bug, is this a bug forest or some crap." Said Imogen, attempting to yawn.

~~~

 "Wait, is that a giant foreboding cave I see?" Said Imogen excitedly.

 "I know It's a bad Idea to just run into a cave unprepared, but I can't help myself." Grinned Imogen as she ran into the cave with a weirdly gleeful attitude.

 "This cave is dark, sticky and filled to the brim with mosquitoes." Said Imogen feeling less excited now.

 "I hate other parasites, I'm the one who's supposed to be getting the blood, not these idiots. Complained Imogen, getting annoyed. 

 "Well, I'm already committed so I can't go back sadly, life is just unfair all the time." Said Imogen, already starting to gripe again.

~~~~

 As Imogen descended it got increasingly bloodier, with blood just slathered all over the walls. 

 "So that's why there's so many mosquitos, but this blood doesn't look recent and the mosquitoes aren't drinking it; I wonder why." Said Imogen concerned. 

 "I guess I should head deeper into this unnerving cave, I'm way too deep to be getting second thoughts." Decided Imogen. 

 So Imogen went even deeper and as she did, the walls just got more and more bloody. The air turned extremely thick and it was so pungent with the smell of blood that even Imogen couldn't enjoy the smell. 

 As Imogen reached the bottom she saw something that she would remember for a long time.

 The walls and floors were covered in human corpses, stacks of eggs sticking out of the human's deceased bodies like stalagmites. And in the center of the room sat a giant mosquito, it's gaze piercing the soul of Imogen.

 All of a sudden the mosquitoes that had ignored her before tried to break her shell, but just ended up killing themselves on it. While Imogen was distracted watching the mosquitoes kill themselves, the Broodmother Mosquito flew up and dived at her. 

 With that one hit Imogen's shell cracked just slightly and Imogen started to get very fearful of the Broodmother Mosquito.

 "How did it crack my shell in one hit, this thing is horrifying." Said Imogen, feeling scared.

 The Broodmother Mosquito dived once again at Imogen, but this time Imogen was ready and dodged it by an inch. Imogen tried to attack, but couldn't because the Broodmother Mosquito was way faster than her. 

 Imogen jumped onto a wall as the Broodmother Mosquito was preparing to dive again, the Broodmother Mosquito didn't even think twice before diving into the wall with Imogen on it. 

 "Heart Plate" Yelled Imogen in her head just in the hopes that it would save her.

*System Compliance: The skill, Heart Plate has doubled your defence for three minutes, it's now on a half a year cooldown.

 Imogen's shell was splintered, but it still held together. The same could not be said about the Broodmother Mosquito, it's proboscis was bent and it's forelegs mangled.

 It crashed to the ground pretty much dead, its blood sack was leaking blood. Imogen slowly crawled herself over to the bloodsack of the Broodmother Mosquito and bit down. 

 For the next half hour Imogen painstakingly drained the blood out of the Broodmother Mosquito until there was none left. 

 "This blood has helped me heal and I'm thankful for that, but I think I should destroy all these eggs; if I left them alive they would only cause problems later." Frowned Imogen, moving towards the eggs.

 The eggs were red and translucent, kind of like the eggs of her siblings, because of that Imogen hesitated to destroy them. Though in the end she decided that it would be best if she got rid of them all… and that's exactly what she did. 

 It took a whole lot of time, but in the end the room that was once filled with life was now lifeless. Imogen felt great remorse for killing the unborn mosquitos and will come to regret this choice in her later days.