The elemental paused, intrigued by this new development. After trying to eat the status window a few times, he reluctantly realized two things:

  A: Status windows aren't food.

  B: He was screwed.

  His newfound sentience allowed him to recognize even more acutely the danger he was in. He was almost out of food and a quick inspection of his surroundings revealed very little in the way of helping him remedy that situation. Fortunately, he had a solution, at least he hoped he did. These screens and the stats they spoke about were an unknown factor, the only potential out of this sticky situation. Unfortunately, he had no idea how to bring them back...

  The screen appeared, responding to his thoughts with a hint of sarcasm. Not that he could detect such subtleties yet anyways.

  Thank you helpful blue box, He thought to himself as he pulled up his status screen.

  An explanation conveniently appeared for each of the cells as he gazed at them with a fair bit of confusion.

  Both of those insights had grand implications for the newborn elemental. For the first time, he realized there were other beings in the world. He was not the only actor on this stage. Now, he looked to his surroundings with trepidation, wondering what could appear to smother him in this early stage of his life. Nonetheless, steeling himself as best he could, he continued to read the remaining notifications that appeared before him.

  The first of the stats, strength, intrigued the elemental. He couldn't quite imagine himself going down that path, however. His body was made of fire, something even he realized would probably not work that well with lifting objects and striking foes.

  The second stat, vitality was much more interesting. Being able to live longer seemed ideal to him, both in term of being struck as well as surviving time. The window informing him of his race had already told him that he would need a great deal of time to reach the heavens, whatever those were.

  The resistance provided by Endurance seemed useful, however, the elemental was questioning investing in it at all considering he had no stamina. It was a point of confusion for him as he did have a point of endurance, something that should grant him 10 stamina. After a moment of thought, he decided to continue reading. Perhaps it would be explained to him later on. These boxes had already seemed to be incredibly helpful.

  Agility was interesting, but like strength, not something he could quite imagine himself actually investing in. The increased speed would probably be nice, but currently his life only involved standing in flames and reading. Two activities which don't really require much fast motion.

  Dexterity seemed amusing, but useless for him. He currently returned to his base form as a ball of fire after failed exploits with a humanoid form. He realized it would probably help him walk and the like when he changed his shape, but that was just a gimmick for him. Judging from the fact that he only got one point every level, stat points would likely be a scarce resource. As such, he planned to use them sparingly and carefully invest in only what he needed. It would probably become useful eventually, like strength and agility before it, but at the moment he couldn't afford to risk wasting his points for it.

  Reflex seemed to be useful in helping him read notifications faster. It's component of spellcasting also seemed rather intriguing, yet he decided to reserve judgement as he didn't know if he could even cast spells yet.

  Intelligence. The stat that had started it all for him. He was already rather fond of intelligence, as instinctually putting a point into it had given him so many new things to do and learn. It also seemed to help with the reading of boxes, making reflex seem somewhat redundant to him.

  He wasn't sure what to think about wisdom. Like reflex, it would probably be incredibly useful, but only if he could cast spells. Again reserving judgement, he read onward to see if he could cast anything.

  Skipping over willpower, He skimmed it and decided to think more on it later; impatience got the better of him, pushing him to look ahead at his "attribute".

  As he read over his attribute, his spirits sank dramatically. It was amazing, at least he hoped it was considering he didn't have anything else to compare it to, but came with a sharp cost. He'd lived his entire life in the flames, but as he had already seen, they were dying out: fast. Now, the fire was barely double his height whereas mere moments before the mana-infused flames could have reached a man's waist. While the fire likely still had about ten minutes left in it, he decided to plan ahead and already began to think of a way out as he read the description of his one and only ability.

  That would be the key, he realized. Quickly deciding to try it, he poured mana into the flames, instincutally treating them as an extension of himself. And the fire moved in response. At first he let it dance wildly out of control, hoping to raise it back up to its former height. As he watched the fire's strength drop sharply; however, he quickly decided against that strategy. Instead he chose to go the opposite direction, reining in the fire until it just barely remained alight.

  Messing around with the flames had consequences, however, in the form of mana consumption. Now at a measly two mana, he quickly realized that it would take at least two minutes for it to regenerate completely. That is, until his attribute activated.

  Normally, for Newborns, Fiery Soul was a powerful, yet not world-breaking tool. Allowing them to regenerate an extra point of mana or two every minute would give them one more burst of power, one more spell to potentially save their lives. If our elemental had one advantage over them however, it was quite simply that these flames from which he was born were far from normal. Infused with the mana of a dead mage, they blasted power outwards. Furthermore, by restricting the flames, the Elemental had unwittingly funneled more of that power into himself as it could no longer easily escape into the air.

  In two seconds, the arcane flames had recharged his mana bar fully and immediately continued their work on his experience bar steadily bringing it closer to level three, until after only a few more moments he crossed the threshold.

  The elemental was taken aback in surprise at the sudden notification. It seemed that his attribute was truly incredible! He quickly sobered, however, recognizing that he was wasting precious time. He needed a plan to survive before the fire died.

  His first step was to closely examine his surroundings. There was; however, very little aid offered by that. He was located in a long tube of cold rock. The bottom of the tube was roughly flattened out, the sides however were rough and held multiple alcoves, where, much to his surprise, he found fire. Trying to reach out to the fire, however, yielded few results. Those flames were simply too weak and distant to be of any use to him. Furthermore, on closer inspection, they were quite strange, seemingly imbuned with the mana of the earth and air around him. Deciding to steer well clear of those until he held a better understanding of them, the elemental continued his inspection until he fell upon what appeared to be the key to his salvation: two fuel sources.

  Much like the one beneath him, they were strewn on the floor of the tunnel. They also held some mana, although the amount was rather miniscule compared to the food source he was currently floating above. He quickly realized that was actually why he hadn't seen them in his earlier hasty search: he had been blinded by the pure mana released from his fire and hadn't taken the time to search out their dim lights. There was a problem with these lights; however, they were unlit.

  Unlike his source, there were no flames consuming these fuels. This added another level of complexity to his plan as now, instead of merely reaching them, he also had to somehow light the fuel sources on fire. That would take thought.

  With his problems recognized, he began to search for solutions. Multiple of which appeared almost instantly. He already had two stat points avilable to distribute, and judging by the amount of time it took him to reach level three, he realized that he would likely gain another before he was forced to relocate. He could invest those points multiple ways, each with its own advantages and drawbacks.

  Investing in vitality would grant him the most time away from a fire, the 20 health points giving him ten more seconds to reach one of the fuel sources. Vitality, however, would not help him with the second part of his problem, actually lighting the source on fire.

  Agility, would likewise help him arrive at the source. Depending on just how much faster it would make him move, he could even potentially reach one of the strange flames on the wall. That; however, came with a great deal of inherent risk. Not only could the strange flames be somehow corrupted, even traveling towards the fuel source could potentially not be enough. Unlike Vitality, Agility had no quantities associated with it. Thus making it a risk as he had no idea how much it could help him.

  Finally, there was intelligence. Unlike Vitality, this would give him extra mana. Due to the nature of the degeneration caused by fiery soul, however, mana would provide the same effect: more time. Mana would also allow him to use more pyromancy, potentially solving the problem of lighting the sources on fire. All this would come at the cost of five seconds. Five seconds that could potentially spell the difference between life and death.

  Of the three choices, he decided to discard agility straight away. It was simply too much of a gamble for not enough of a reward. Finally, he was left with the first truly difficult decision he had to make. Intelligence or Vitality. For a few moments, he wallowed in indecision, until finally he decided on a compromise. Moving quickly before he could hesitate again, he first put a point into Intelligence, and then into Vitality.

  As he willed the point to vitality, however, two new notifications appeared.

  The new trait couldn't have arrived at a better time for him. Now, his compromise was justified: he had gained some mana in addition to even more time than he expected. It also brought up questions. He had gained a trait each time he placed a second point into a stat, yet, even though he met that requirement in multiple other stats, he had not unlocked their perk. That puzzeled him for a second until he took another look at his stat page.

  In his rush to see if he had any spells, he had ignored the Unallocated Trait point. With greater intelligence, he was beginning to realize that his hastiness was going to cause him only troubles. Nonetheless, as he felt the fire continue to dim, he knew he needed to hurry and resolved to slow down once he had the time and opportunity to do so.

  THinking about the perk point brought up its own screen in front of him.

  Seeing the available choices, he almost immediately picked Thoughtful. The passive gain for Wisdom would almost certainly provide greater benefits than that for Willpower, and if the pattern held true he would gain a point of Intelligence. He almost did that. Stopping himself in the nick of time, he realized that he couldn't actually afford to do that. His race only gained one trait point every five levels. As such, he would hardly have any to spare. Furthermore,from what he had seen so far, if he did not meet the requirement for a new trait by placing a stat point there, he would fail to gain that trait automatically. Thus, he couldn't afford to risk gaining intelligence before he knew at what levels traits were gained.

  That removed both Thoughtful and Determined from his options. None of the remaining choice seemed particularly appealing; however. While Twitchy and Restless would give him a point in vitality, They'd would likely end up being a waste of a trait point as their passive benefits probably wouldn't be much help to him at all. That's because he lacked stamina completly and didn't exactly need fast reflexes to run between fuel sources.

  With those choices eliminated, he only had one left: Adaptable. The only choice without any requirements, it was also the riskiest. With the other traits, he at least had a general idea of what he was getting. Adaptable had no precedent. For a moment he toyed with just activating one of the other traits, It might work out after all. Nonetheless, he couldn't quite bring himself to do it. He didn't want to cripple himself in the future for a brief benefit at the moment. So although he was still somewhat hesitant, he placed his point into Adaptable, gaining the trait.

  The elemental didn't quite know how to react to the trait. On one hand, it was incredibly useful if he managed to survive; the key word there is "if" he managed to survive. The other traits would at least have had some immediate effects on improving his prospects, however minute those were. This however was almost completly useless to him at the moment.

  All that didn't matter though, as it was time to go. The fire surrounding him had finally run out of fuel, only lingering magic in the air keeping it lit. As it let out it's dying flicker, one last notification appeared before the elemental.

  He, however, didn't have time for that. He had to move. Now. Willing it to disapear, he set off towards the closest fuel source.

  The first thing he felt was cold. A mind-numbing, piercing cold that dug its way into his very core. IT tore at him, sapping his strength, his very will to go on. He felt his essence itself blasting out, falling out of him and trying to feed the hungry maw of ice surrounding him. The walk to the fuel source was in itself fairly short, but at his tiny size, the energy could as well have been miles away.

  Slowly, but surely, he ate up that distance. Inching his way above the damp floor of the tunnel, he snuck a glance at his status.

  Looking ahead, he could see that he was already halfway to the fuel. He would make it! He would live! He rejoiced, moving forward with renewed speed for all of two seconds. After two seconds, his mana was gone and fiery soul began to cut deeply into his health.

  You see, what the elemental had failed to calculate was the effect of stamina consumption. While other races had dedicated bars for that, the secondary effect of fiery soul caused him to consume mana, or health, instead. Moving in between the sources had caused him to actually lose 3 points per second, two from the fiery soul and one from Stamina consumption. That actually gave him a little over 16 seconds to traverse the distance rather than the 25 he had anticipated. Further compounding this were the ... "interesting" effects caused by losing health.

  AGONY...

  That was the only way the elemental could describe losing three health points a second. Whereas before the cold had sapped his will, it now tore at him. Bits and pieces of power fell off like embers from a dying fire as he was nearly stopped in place by the pain. Grunting under the strain, he pushed forward. If he stopped, even for a second, he would die.

  One second.

  Two seconds.

  Three seconds.

  Four seconds.

  He had made it! He was at the source! There was no fire though. The mana lay dormant, buried deep inside the source. There has to be something flammable! He desperately thought to himself as he lowered himself as close to the source in a last ditch attempt to start a fire.

  Five seconds.

  Six seconds.

  The agony doubled as his health finally dipped below half. Nearly buckling below the increased pain, he rejoiced through blurry vision as he watched a small fire catch beneath him. Would it grow large enough to sustain him in time?

  Seven seconds.

  Eight seconds.

  Nine seconds.

  Ten seconds.

  Eleven seconds.

  Twelve seconds.

  The pain disappeared. The cold too. It was all good now. He was safe here. Nothing would hurt him anymore. A bright light surrounded him, and the fire elemental slipped away....

  ...into a dreamless sleep as his health slowly started to climb upwards. The new fire around him shielding the child from the cold, cruel world.