He was born in the dark. Darkness was all he knew. It was warm and comfortable. It was his home. He never wondered where he was or why he was here. Nothing like that mattered. All that mattered was staying in his home, where it was peaceful and warm.

  Yet something had disturbed his peace. Something new. Something he had never felt before. A dull ache echoed out of his body. Pain was something new to him. Something different from the darknes. He hated it. It was the worst feeling in the world. He never wanted to feel this way again. The pain made it abundantly clear where his body stopped and the darkness began. His thoughts and senses would fade away in the comforting darkness, he would become one with the darkness, and his body would lose all sensation. That couldn’t happen when there was a throbbing pain coursing through him. Something had to change.

  The pain had reminded him of what his body felt like, it had been so long he had almost forgotten. He had a head,with two antennas sticking out of it. His body was long and windy, covered in hair, and three pairs of legs ran along his body. It seemed like his body had changed with time, he never used to be this big.

  As the pain coursed through his body, he knew he had to do something or he would continue to suffer. He knew what he had to do. It was time. He had to leave the darkness. In the center of the darkness, laid his body, coiled up into itself like a ball. Flexing his muscles, he uncoiled himself, stretching to his full length. When he uncolied himself, his head rubbed up against something hard. It seemed that he had found the end of the darkness. Infront of him was a giant wall of some rough material. The wall seemed to curve, and it didn’t take him long to find out he was surrounded by it on all sides.

  Deep within himself, he knew how to get out. He didn’t know how he knew it, but he just did. As his head neared a wall, he tore into it with his mandibles. The wall broke apart easily and slid into his gullet. Before he even finished swallowing, he tore into it again devoring more and more of it. This must be what eating felt like. He absolutely loved it. The wall tasted so good. From here on out eating would become his favorite thing to do. It wasan’t long before he ate the entire wall infront of him. The pain in him vanished when he devoured the wall, yet he almost didn’t notice, as he was too shocked by what he saw.

  Through the hole in the wall, an entire world appeared before him. Lushious, vibrant green trees stretched across the horizon. Animals of all kinds were flying about and running along trees. Most of the animals were giants, many times his size. Flowers of every color marred the floor. They were so beautiful. And the sun. It was bright. So bright. Its light shone on everything. He could feel the sun on his skin. It was warm and comfortable. It reminded him of being in the dark.Sounds echoed out all around him. Chirping,howling, growling. Everything demanded his attention. The sun. The trees. The sounds. The wondrous color of everything. It was all too much. Every new thing demanded his attention. His head was spinning.

  He would go mad if this kept up. There was just too much stuff. Crawling back into his egg, he wished for darkness. Yet darkness never came, the hole made it so that the sun would always be shining on him. It seemed he would never again go back to the home he once had, yet that didn’t mean he couldn’t pretend. It wasan’t too long ago from when he was in the darkness, so it was still fresh in his mind. He blocked out the sounds of the forest, pretending they didn’t exist. He remembered what it felt like to be in the darkness. To be floating and free. To have nothing bothering him. To be careless. To be empty. And then there he was in the darkness. He could still feel the sun on him, and knew that his home was gone. Nevertheless, in his mind he was in the darkness.

  He stayed in the darkness for quite a while. It calmed his mind and distracted him from the outside world. A sound rang in his mind yet he ignored it, he wanted to stay in the darkness. But he knew he couldn’t stay there forever. It wouldn’t do him any good. Eventually he would have to leave and venture into the outer world. Once his mind settled down completely, he knew it was time to leave.

  He slowly ditatched his mind from the darkness. He reminded himself that he had a body and that he was in his broken home. Piece by piece he started to bring himself back to the world. He would focus on one sensation until it became comfortable to him. The first was the sun. It didn’t take him long to get used to, the warmth he felt was comfortable and the light wasn’t too irritating. The colors took a while longer. Each new color he saw was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. All he could do was stare at the colors till he got bored and found a new one. His attention kept hopping to one thing to the next. When he felt his mind starting to wander too much, he reeled it in and focused on getting used to these new sensations. Eventually the colors lost their wonder. They were still vibrant and pretty, yet his eyes weren’t dragged to them.

  All that was left was for him to get used to sound. It took him by far the longest. Each sound was unique and different. He couldn’t tell where they were coming from or how far away they were. He didn’t even know what was making the sounds. New sounds came and went and he learned to filter them out. He didn’t need to pay attention to every little thing he heard. All he needed to pay attention to were the things closest to him, anything else didn’t need his attention. With that done, he could now finally leave his home without being overwhelmed. But before he could do that, a chime echoed out throughout his mind.

  You have learned the skill [Meditation Lv 1

  You have learned the skill [Focus] Lv 1

  Knowledge poured into his mind. He knew that he had learned two skills and that their names were Meditation and Focus, but that was all he knew. He didn’t know what a skill was. What they did or where this sudden knowledge came from. Now that he felt the sensation of knowledge being poured into his mind, he felt something else. It was as if there was an itch in the back of his mind. Something foreign. Something that wasan’t supposed to be there. Something that wasan’t entirely him. He scratched the itch he felt.

  Species: Spirit Larva(Gamma 0%)

  Traits: [Spirit Affinity][Blessed with Knowledge][Tiny][Puny][Dainty][Fragile][Herbivore][Burning Bright]

  Attributes:

  Strength:0

  Agility:3

  Vitality:3

  Perception:5

  Intelligence:20

  Skills: [Meditation Lv 1][Focus] Lv 1} (2/10)

  He didn’t know enough to fully understand what his traits did or what each stat meant, but he had a feeling that what he was looking at wasan’t good. Bigger numbers must be better. Having a strength value of 0 seemed really bad for him. Puny and Fragile also seemed to be something harmful rather than helpful. And one of his traits was wrong, he wasan’t tiny, he was big, or at least much bigger than when he was younger. His mind’s eye focused on his trait and like before knowledge suddenly shot into his brain.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Tiny: Amoung all of the creatures in the world, you are considered one of the smallest. Men and beasts alike tower over you. Be careful lest you be trampled underfoot by those above you.

  He didn’t think he was that small. The winged-creatures he saw flying by were massive, many times his size. But that had to be because they were so big. He couldn’t really be that small, could he? A look at his surroundings one more time confirmed something for him. He really was that small. His previous home was resting on a leaf. And that leaf was at least four times his size. Well, there was nothing wrong with being small. Only the glaring possibility of being trampled to death. He would just have to be careful and make due with his size, or lack thereof. He read his next few traits. They did not fill him with a sense of ease.

  Puny: You are without a doubt, one of the weakest creatures in creation. You do not have the strength to lift or push anything. In a battle of strength against anything else you would lose every time. Your strength attribute is capped at 0 as long as you have this trait.

  Dainty: Your species is not known for their vitality. Any damage at all has the potential of killing you. You are more subseptible to disease and adverse weather conditions. Your vitality is capped at 10 for as long as you have this Trait.

  Fragile: You do not have any defenses against those that would do you harm. You break easily and thoroughly. Be careful young one for the slightest misstep and you will lose everything.

  Herbivore: You are an animal that feeds on plants to sustain itself. This includes a variety of leafs,roots,fruit,nuts, and grain. You will never know the taste of flesh.

  Burning Bright: Your species is cursed with a short lifespan. You will have a fraction of a fraction of the lifespan that most creatures have. To rectify this handicap, you will be able to learn skills much faster and easier than other races. Burn bright child and live well.

  This was bad. This was worse than bad. This was terrible.Not only was he the smallest creature in the forest, he was the weakest one. He would also break at the slightest injury. And if things couldn’t possibly get worse, he was cursed with a short lifespan, fated to die soon. He didn’t want to die. He wanted to sleep and eat peacefully. That didn’t sound like too much to ask for him. With these traits, he had no chance surviving out in the forest. Anything could kill him out there with no effort.

  There had to be something he was good at. He refused to believe that he was the absolute worst at everything.

  Blessed with Knowledge: During your creation, knowledge prana flooded and infused your spirit, giving you knowledge unbeffiting of your species.You are smarter than other beasts of your age and species. Your knowledge may be fragmented or incomplete. But be warned young one. Knowledge does not equal experience nor does it aquate to wisdom. +10 Intelligence

  Spirit Afinity: As a Spirit Larva, you are attuned to the Spirit Realm. Your spirit is stronger than most. Control over your own spirit will come far easier to you than most. You will find it easier to communicate with beings of spirit.The Song of Spirit will sing more clearly for you than for others. Listen to the Song.

  This was good news. Not amazing news, but this he could work with. So if this thing was to be believed, he was smarter than other animals. He had an advantage over them in brainpower. All he had to do was use his mind and he had a chance to survive.The other trait stumped him. He did not know what spirit was or how to use it. And it mentioned a song that he was supposed to hear, yet he heard nothing but the sounds of the forest.

  Now that he had a better grasp on his situation, it was time to start exploring the forest. He couldn’t stay in his egg forever. Even though he knew the forest was full of dangers, he couldn’t help but feel a little excited. There were so many new things to see and do. Like the leaf that his egg was on. He couldn’t wait to see what the leaf tasted like. Nothing was in his way, so he threw himself at the leaf. It tasted heavenly. The egg had nothing on the leaf. It was crunchy, yet sweet. Not too sweet though. He ate till he couldn’t anymore. Then he ate some more just to remember the taste. Laying on the leaf full of holes, he was full for the first time, his hunger satisfied.

  It felt quite good, although he was a little stuffed. Maybe next time he would cut back on eating so much. Well as long as it didn’t taste too good. Filling full, he decided it would be a good idea to explore the tree he was on. He crawled up his leaf and onto a branch. The feeling of moving all of his legs at the same time was still new to him, yet he quickly gained the hang of it. Crawling along the branch was way different than on the leaf, the branch was much harder and gave no give at all. He really had to push his legs into the tree. As he moved along the branch, something became much clearer to him. He was slow. Not dreadfully slow, but still slow. It took him quite a while to travel to the base of the branch, and this was with him going as fast as he could. He wouldn’t be outrunning anything in a chase. He would have to leverage his size to stay hidden from the beasts, if they caught sight of him there wasan’t a single thing he could do.

  As he reached the end of the branch, he reached a realization. He didn’t need to leave this tree. It had a perfect supply of food for him, and the tree would protect him from the environment and the other beasts down below that would harm him. He really lucked out being born on a tree. Finding a place to sleep would be his next priority. A hole into the tree would be good for shelter. Once he found that he would be set to live out his best life, eating and sleeping non stop. Thus his journey around the tree began.

  He would crawl along the tree for as long as he could trying to find a hole to crawl in. He would get tired and have to rest for a bit. Then he continued his search. He did this over and over. Rest. Go. Rest. Go. He had been doing this for hours. It was so boring. Just a constant cycle of doing the same thing over and over for nothing to change. It also reminded him of how slow he was. There was at least one good thing that came from his efforts, he got a message that he had gotten the skill Crawling. He had even managed to get it to level three. Whatever that meant. Whenever the skill leveled up, he felt a shift inside him. He suddenly knew how to move his legs in a slightly different way, that made it easier for him to crawl. He would get less tired and was able to crawl faster whenever he leveled up. It seemed that gaining skills would help him develop better ways to protect himself. Good to know. The skill leveling up was also the only source of entertainment that he had. He kept crawling for longer and longer, trying to get another level. Yet it never came even after over an hour of crawling. The first level came fast, while the second level came a little bit after that. The third level took much longer, almost an entire hour. Now no matter what he did his skill wouldn’t level up.

  He had been at this for a while, and his body was starting to groan in protest. He needed some rest before he started exploring the tree again. In the meantime, he needed to find something else to alleviate his boredom. He liked it when his Crawling skill leveled up, so why not try leveling up the other ones. He went into a trance like before, his senses fading into the background, darkness enveloping his mind. His mind was floating on waves of nothingness, without a care in the world. He spent some time there, calming his mind. It wasan’t the most exciting thing but it gave him something to do.

  [Meditation] has leveled up 1→2

  The darkness around him grew deeper, and he felt his mind fall into a deeper trance. He would have stayed there for longer, yet it was getting darker. He still had some time left to find shelter before night. His legs clattered across the dark wood, climbing up to the next branch.

  Before he could start to ascend the tree, he felt something approaching him. The best way to describe what he felt was a presence coming at him. He didn’t hear it or see it, yet it felt like something was brushing up against his mind, but it wasn't his mind. He didn’t know what this feeling was, but that didn’t matter. Whatever was coming at him was strong. Its presence was so strong, he felt like he was next to the sun. A pressure pushed down against his body, forcing him deeper into the ground. This thing could kill him without any effort, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. There was no use hiding. Nothing nearby could cover him and running was pointless. Fighting even an option. He was going to die and there was nothing he could do. All he could do was accept his death and hope it was painless.