Chapter 4: Moving Up in the World

So I'm looking for plants with edible parts, either stems, leaves, bulbs, or roots. I find one small shrub like plant with flower bulbs, and gather a few bulbs. Next I find some tall stalky plants, which I uproot. Unfortunately, they don't have any large roots, but I snap some of their stems, and take them with me.

I'm starting to get a little concerned with how long I've been out here, so I start heading back towards the cave, keeping my eye out for plants. I luck upon a single plant with somewhat large broad leaves, and try to uproot it as well. I'm greeted by some bulbs within its roots, so I snap the roots to take the root bulbs, before finally returning to the cave entrance with my haul.

After piling the plant parts on top of the wood pile, I head back into the cave. This time being extra cautious not to fall in the especially dark areas, because I'd likely never find all the things I'd drop, making the next trip even more hazardous.

---

Finally, after what feels like an eternity, I'm back in the safety of the deep cave. Everything's where I left it, including the work I need to do on clearing out the largest of the sub-caves. For now though, I need to put all the stuff I'm carrying down, and eat some food.

I make my way into my sub-cave, eat some dried imp, and then begin preparing some of the plant to rub through my fur against my skin. I peel some of the petals from the flower bulb and rub that, and the center against one patch of skin, then I break one of the thick stems, and rub the broken area on a different skin patch. Finally I shave some of the root and repeat on a third patch.

Given everything I've done today, I'm very tired at this point, and lay back to sleep.

This is the second time I've felt the maxed out level feeling now.

<UNCOMMON IMP>
Level: 100
HP: 360/360
MP: 52/52

Available Traits:
Earth Manipulation: More easily manipulate rock and earth.

Available Species:
Goblin

Well, I stand by what I've been planning, so I suppose I should choose to prestige rather than evolve. Since, I'm doing that, then it looks like I currently only have Earth Manipulation as a trait to pick. Well, I suppose with those decisions made, it's time to just give in to the changes.

As my consciousness fades, I realize that I'll probably need to re-test the plants on my skin.

---

Well, I'm not completely used to the perspective change, but I was at least expecting it this time. I look down over my body, and the hair has darkened again. It's no longer fully red, but looks to be a slightly muddy red instead. I look at my claws, and notice that my claw shape has changed slightly. Now the long nails are thicker, but also have a flat edge on the palm side. Carrying things is probably going to be that much harder now I guess.

Checking my status yields the following results.

<RARE IMP>
Level: 0
HP: 123/123
MP: 29/29
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation

Well, back to being weaker. Which I suppose is fine for a little while, I need to move into the largest sub-cave anyway, so I can spend a little time doing that and hopefully level up some to become stronger again within the safety of the cave.

Before I do anything though, I'm starving. I go over and grab more of the dried imp meat. Then some more again. Crap. I'm bigger again, and I need more of the meat to sustain myself. I need to double down on getting another source of food.

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As soon as I finish eating, I repeat the plant tests from yesterday on my skin under my fur. There was no reaction over my sleep period, but that could be a consequence of prestige/evolution. I'd hate to die as a consequence of not being cautious here.

Before I do anything else, while I remember it, I should etch my level 0 stats down in the wall, which I notice is actually easier than it was before. Maybe that is the Earth Manipulation trait coming into effect. Either way, I want to contemplate a problem from before. I thought it was either 5% of gained stats, or 3.33% of total stats, that I kept. I started at... 110? I think, as an uncommon imp. I ended at 360, so 250 gained stats. That means I either gained 13, or 23 stats, depending on how it's calculated.

I do some mental math, if it's out of the 360, then either 3.61%, or 6.38%, neither of which match the previous prestige values, not that they have to I guess. Then if it is instead out of the 250 gained, it's either 5.2% or 9.2%. Assuming potential rounding issues, then 5.2% is close. Then again, 3.61% is close for total as well.

I run some more numbers, if it was instead 12 or 14, how would it look for total stats? 12 would be 3.33% for 360, which would actually be in line with the before values, so I can probably say it's not a rounding error for the 13 value. How about for 250? 12 would give 4.8%, which keeps it in rounding range. For now, I'll run with the working assumption that I'm keeping 5% of my gained stats when I prestige, and those values are added to my level 0 values from my previous form.

The mana values have too many variables thanks to Mana Affinity for me to be certain about. For now I'll just make sure I've scratched the values into the wall before I leave.

---

Pulling the crystals out of the wall is way easier now. My claws are shaped just right to get under a corner and pop them out. Given the new pace, I finish up clearing the largest sub-cave's entrance early, and begin the process of moving all my stuff into this new room.

Given its size, I shouldn't need to worry about moving for some time now. Which is enough reason to motivate me to move into it. I carry things one at a time from my old cave to this new one, each time copying some of the scratchings on the wall until I've moved all but the crystal pile, at which point, I start to feel an itch.

I look down, and the patch of skin that I rubbed the plant stem on, it's irritated. Well, I'm glad I didn't try to just eat random things, I'm not sure what exactly the plant stems are, whether it's poison or an irritant, but either way, I suppose the rest of them are useless to me. Given that, I move them back to the old cave as I grab a few of the crystals from the old crystal pile to haul over before I sleep.

After dropping these ones off, I check my status.

<RARE IMP>
Level: 10
HP: 150/153
MP: 35/35
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation

Considering I don't have any other reason I can think of for why I'm missing HP, my guess is that damage comes from the poison. My hope is that it's the stem though, and not some other poison. I guess I'll find out though. For now, I'll just go to sleep, and recheck my HP when I wake up. I don't want to move on to the next stage of testing for poison yet until I regain my missing hitpoints.

---

When I wake up, I recheck my stats to see if I've healed.

<RARE IMP>
Level: 10
HP: 153/153
MP: 35/35
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation

Ok, I have healed up, and the patch of skin from before seems to no longer be irritated. Once I fill my belly, I'll move on to the next plant test of checking against my lips.

After eating more of my ever shrinking meat supply, I move on to testing a small amount of the bulbous roots against my lips, rubbing them around them, making sure to leave some on my lips when I pull it away.

For the rest of today, I'll just haul the rest of the crystals from my old cave to this new one.

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