Chapter Eight - 008The night air stilled as everything dimmed, just slightly. Then they world...flexed, somehow.
Everything went dark.
You have gained a Memory from a Copse Grub! Would you like to review it now?
Yes/Yes
Everything was still dark. Dark, comforting and damp and safe. Life. Food.
Flexing and pulling...crawling, inching through dissolving food. Delicious.
Light. Sudden. Dangerous.
Pain. Food torn away.
A face. Wrong. Broken. Metal. Unmade.
Lost.
They're all Lost.
A claw, sharp. Stabbing pain flooding body. Hurt.
Hurt.
Release the Burning, the Foodmaker. Over and over, until empty. Flee. Burrow down, down, deep as possible.
Into the dark.
Where it's safe.
"Urghlgh."
The sound of his own retching hit him before anything else. Felix groaned and rolled over, his body limp as a dead fish and somehow sore all over.
These Memories hit like a truck, Felix groaned, cradling his head. Feels like my brain is trying to escape with an ice pick.
Some time later, he managed to roll to his knees without vomiting again. The tree stopped spinning long enough to show him morning was well underway. He'd managed to lose the entire night.
Blacking out this much can't be healthy. He steadied his head, feeling like his eyeballs were pushing in the wrong directions. Yeah, no. Definitely not healthy.
He settled back against his branch and considered his hands. A short while ago they were just nubby feet meant to push him through the delicious white wood of his mother tree. The grub's mother tree, he corrected. It was hard to keep the grub-Felix and himself separate. The Memory was so seamless that it felt baked into his mind.
After a moment longer, he accessed his notifications.
Pain Resistance is level 13!
Lessons of the Past is level 3!
Lessons of the Past is level 4!
Congratulations! Lessons of the Past Has Garnered You Insight!
You Have Learned A New Skill!
Acid Stream (Rare), Level 1!
Manifest a stream of acid to launch at foes!
"Holy shit, it worked." Eyes wide, Felix considered the implications as he fought down the burning in his chest. His Gourmand title gave him some sort of percentage to learn his opponents' strengths by eating them. Apparently he didn't have to eat them whole, as proven by the Kingsap and now the Copse Grub's blood. The percentage is also very low, maybe less than 1% based on how often he had gotten grub blood in his mouth during the previous day.
Not only that, the first skill the title had acquired for him was Lessons of the Past, which also created some sort of chance to gain skills from experiencing the Memories contained in his foes' Mana. Metaphysical implications of memories stored in blood aside, the skill and title combination was amazing. While he obviously didn't gain a Memory from the Kingsap, he had still had a chance to learn Meditation due to the Mana that flowed through the magic tree. And though his Gourmand title didn't activate on the Copse Grub, he still was able to grab a Memory and learn from that.
"This is amazing," Felix laughed and was about to stand up when a blue box appeared in front of him.
Congratulations!
You Have Received Your First Spell!
You Have Received A Quest!
Advance Three Spells To Apprentice Level!
Reward: Title
"Oh man," he began. "Quests too? Fixed rewards? This is--"
ERROR...
Lost Race Detected...
Adjusting Quest...
Quest Received!
Advance Five Spells To Apprentice Level!
Reward: Variable, Title
"What."
The bottom dropped out of Felix's stomach. He had gotten a quest, but his race--his stupid, XP-penalty-having, not-his-choice race--altered it? Not only altered it, but made it harder, apparently!
He rubbed his temples. At least the rewards appeared to increase, though "variable" could mean almost anything.
And what did Apprentice level mean? It was higher than level 13, the level of his highest Skill. Pain Resistance didn't mention a word about Apprentice anything. Frowning, he pulled up his Status screen and consulted his Skills.
"Oh man, these are a mess." He'd been gaining Skills rapidly the past few days, and the result was a Skill column that was a mish-mash of types, rarities, and levels.