Quinn awoke lost.
He had a feeling of uneasiness. But more importantly, loneliness.
In his mind, he didn't know what to do. In his past life, he sorted out games as a way to escape from his crippling loneliness. But now there was no such means.
And since he was a worm, he couldn't just go meet people. This added to the fire. He needed to grind so he could get friends.
Getting straight into it, Quinn ate until he was full. Then, he returned to dragging fragments of ordinary pine leaves down into his burrow.
He bumped into another worm. Simultaneously activating [Appraisal] and [Pheromone detection], Quinn found out that combining senses results in a better appraisal.
[Appraisal:
Species:Lesser Earthworm(Lvl:4)
Strength:4]
It might've been the improved level of appraisal and the added stimuli.
'Hmm, do you want to be my friend?'
Sadly, there was no response. Quinn was still lonely. That's when an idea popped into his head.
'Another worm... [Fragmentation]!!!'
Quinn hurried back to his burrow. Excited, he got ready by piling some leaves in his bedroom in case he needed an emergency snack.
[ [Fragmentation] Activated]
Quinn's body split into two. His tail started flailing around. And Quinn felt weaker.
He wasted no time eating some of the leaves while watching the tail act like a dead fish. Until it didn't. It started acting like it was actually dead. Curious, Quinn appraised it.
[Appraisal:
Species:Fragmented Lesser Earthworm(Lvl:9)
Strength:2]
'9???' Quinn was shocked since he was technically the same, meaning he should have the same level. Opening up his status, Quinn was confused.
[
Name:Quinn
Species: Fragmented Lesser Earthworm(Lvl:9)
Exp:[3/26]
Strength:4(-2)
Agility:5(+1)
Vitality:4
Intelligence:3
Arcane:2
Skills: [Appraisal] [Mana Sense]
]
'Mana Sense? Lvl 9?'
Calculating by using the Exp requirement pattern of +2 every level Quinn worked out, he got an odd 47 Exp for [Mana Sense].
But it didn't make sense. The system didn't like to be odd on the first go. In this way, Quinn concluded that his Exp got shared with his other fragment. Who was starting to show signs of life. But still no intellect.
Quinn had drawn a line. If the worm could communicate, the worm would draw its own line, forming an X.
However, as soon as the worm had a functioning head, it started eating the leaves. Quinn had hoped that it remembered.
'Huh... what's that??'
The worm started sensing around, stopping to study the line. Until digging off in a random upward direction, never to be seen again.
Quinn was again, left alone. And alone, he went to sleep, ready to start the same day again and again.
He had now ended up where he started. In a boring mundane existence. But now, with a system window to keep him company.
But Quinn still had a new skill. He was still confused about how he got the skill. But ultimately, it didn't matter. He just needed to find out how to use it.
'Use use use... I guess that only works with racial skills'
Besides magic, there was only hauling leaves. And why the hell would Quinn do something like that over magic.
An hour passed with Quinn's fruitless attempts to sense magic. No matter how hard he tried, nothing seemed to work.
'Ugh... Guess back to hauling some stupid leaves'
Quinn really didn't like hauling leaves. But what else could he do.
The day passed, and Quinn realized how detrimental his fragmented body was. Before he could haul whatever he could find.
But the lack of length and strength made [Expansion] hard to use.
'Ahh wtf. Of course, this would happen to me'
After hauling only an inferior fragment of leaf, Quinn felt like he couldn't do any work.
'Well, back to this magic shit. How did I even get this skill anyway. The last thing I remember was sleeping. Wait'
Quinn devised a plan. Well, it's more like an experiment. But all his previous attempts had him focusing as hard as he could to feel a cosmic force.
But Quinn was sleeping. He wasn't concentrating. Rather the opposite. He was relaxed. Quinn just had to relax a lot without falling asleep. Like meditation.
Sounds simple, right?
Quinn fell asleep.
He didn't dream. He didn't sense any mana. But he awoke to his body paralyzed.