Cowardice, a trait shared by both the weak and the smart. A weak man will run from all threats, while a smart man will run from true danger. There will always be more cowards than the brave, because the cowards will always survive. While the brave will one day find that their fear was valid. Perhaps I am jaded, but I’d rather be a coward with my loved ones intacted, than a brave man bereft of all company.
Regardless of my personal beliefs my friends, it is true that cowardice and the will to overcome it has made many great. For the truly great will turn any weakness into a strength. To stride along the path of power is dangerous, well trodden though it may be, there are many pitfalls and traps. Sometimes it is best to wait and hide, even if it is cowardly it is often the best choice.
Our dev?k hid in its newly made necropolis for three days and four nights. The first night was spent cowering and expecting to die. When its hunger finally got the better of it, the insectoid ventured outside to find the sun had returned. Relief floody its tiny frame, as it began to scavenge the remaining remains of the desecrator ants. While glad the sun came back, it still feared the titans from the night before might come back. A pointless fear really. But a fear that changed our dev?k and pushed it down a very different path.
Most everything in this part of the woods was absolutely terrified of the desecrator ants, and gave them a wide berth. The only reason that the axolotl and undergrowth were even nearby was because the stag had hoped one of the ants might poison the axolotl. Unfortunately for the undergrowth stag, they were already dead by the time it had lured the axolotl close, and its fate was sealed. Because of the innate fear that most residents of the forest had for the ants, nothing lingered too long. Which meant the dev?k’s fear was entirely pointless, but it caused the percentage on Gluttony to dip lower and lower. Hitting negative numbers. Upon hitting negative one hundred on the dawn of the third day, a new prompt appeared.
The dev?k had never got non-combat related points before and was wondering if advancing its sin would normally do this. Despite our bug’s increased stats it still wasn’t too sure what it had done to get the bonus, but perhaps it was just a bonus because it had done such a good job with the fortress. It didn't really think much about the rapid growth part of the message, if it had it would have noticed a few things sooner. It may have even granted a few more bonus points to mentality. Our bug had grown another few centimeters each day more than doubling its original height at twelve centimeters.
The debuff to the bug’s strength hadn’t changed, so things weren’t that different for the bug, except now every step seemed to strain every muscle in the tiny bug's body. It was a chore to even move now, regardless the dev?k began digging inside the egg room at the bottom of the colony. Hoping to find some more eggs to eat, but really it was just killing time until it felt confident enough to go outside again. It idled away the day by digging pointlessly, and inspecting its Stats and what they did for the bug.
The information was useful, but unfortunately for the idiotic insect it was hard to keep it all straight. Then there were the taglines at the end. Basic or advanced, might, mind, and magic. Those words only served to confuse the already overwhelmed dev?k. Plus the concepts for the advanced type attributes were a little out of reach for the young bug.Focusing once more on strength, the little bug tried focusing on the last bit. Trying to get a new prompt to appear.
Next the bug pulled up dexterity to wrap its head around the differences between the basic and advanced.
Not super helpful, but what the dev?k took away from the prompts was; basic attributes are almost essential to normal bodily functions, while advanced attributes act as an extra advantage over the weak. From what the dev?k gathered there were six basic attributes, two for each category and an unknown number of advanced ones. There could even be an entire category the bug was missing. Though that seemed unlikely. If there was another category then shouldn't the bug have at least one basic stat in it? But well it didn’t have any basic mind stats. Perhaps there was a fourth stat category it was just too difficult to obtain. As the day progressed our dev?k began to get familiar with what each attribute could do, and what the bugs' limits were. Straining to recognize the feel of each stat augmentation. The hunger pains were starting to get worse and the bug desperately wanted a distraction.
As the fourth night started and as our dev?k got bored of aimlessly digging began to do something it had never really done before. It wanted to investigate its own limits, so our bug decided to look through its Abilities and Skills, to find with a shock that the window had changed. Albeit slightly.
The addition of the red sins column was interesting. Only so far as it meant that there were more sins, and the younger sinner wasn’t eager for anymore debuffs. So it thought about Parasitical Growth, learning more about it since the bug’s feelings and impressions were rather vague.
That hidden effect thing was new, but it would definitely explain the odd pulling sensation that led it to the ant colony. If the dev?k had words it would have described the effect as 'neat'. It spent a lot of time looking through the rest of its stats but it only found two things of interest. The first was its other ability.
The dev?k's immediately tried both regrowing and increasing the number of tendrils it had. However the bug was dismayed to find that the process was painfully slow. It took quite a long time to do properly, mostly because it wanted the extra tendrils too, but also because it was difficult to change normal flesh into shapeshifter flesh. After waiting several hours our dev?k was finally whole again. Testing out the extra appendages the dev?k was actually rather happy with the sin. It had made it possible to regrow limbs without starving the dev?k to death or anything ridiculous like that. Speaking of which, that was the other thing that the dev?k had found interesting.
The description of the sin had gotten even less helpful, and something about that percentage was ominous. At least it may have seemed that way to another, our dev?k just wanted to fill it to see what other bonus treats it might gain. The dev?k then moved on to the section it had been most curious about.
The dev?k definitely wanted more of these levels, and to find out what a profession was. It also wanted to figure out why it hadn't gotten any more stat-ups after the first one. After all, it had cleared out the nest and fought the queen after it had gotten to level 4. Perhaps it was because it didn't try for the second half of the assault, which was really just a slaughter.
Despite now believing this to be the answer, the dev?k still wanted details. Unfortunately, it didn't find anything no matter how much it looked. The night was only half over so the dev?k decided to double check its stats. Then triple check.
Finally overwhelmed by frustration, pain from its slight hunger, and well, just tired of doing nothing. The dev?k left its small sanctuary in Lost Woods smarter, stronger, and with a better understanding of how to use its skills and abilities.
