1. Rocks

1. Rocks

A sea of infinite void engulfed me; I found myself wriggling, struggling to break free of the eternal darkness. I pushed myself forward, closer and closer to the edge of the dome that encapsulated my very world.

I had thought it would be hard to break. I had expected it to be a hardened shell, tempered by the eternity of its existence. I never hoped to escape from the boundless abyss— drowning in the ocean of nothingness, forever trapped to unbirth.

And yet, I broke through the surface so easily, I didn’t even realize I was finally free. Only the words that filled my head made me realize I was finally alive.

Salvos

Species: [Infant Demon]

Subspecies: [Demon Larva] – Lvl. 1

General Skills:

[Identification] – Lvl. 1

[Racial Skill: Universal Language Comprehension] – Lvl. 1

Stats:

[Available Stat Points: 0]

[Vitality]: 5

[Strength]: 5

[Endurance]: 5

[Wisdom]: 5

[Agility]: 5

Skills:

[Available Skill Points: 0]

[Unused Skill Slot] x5

These words resounded not as a voice, but as a breadth of information that I intuitively knew: I did not have to be told that my name was Salvos— I was simply Salvos.

I lay there for what felt like an immortal moment, choosing not to move, choosing to revel in my existence. Finally, I opened my eyes, taking in the world around me.

Up above, darkling clouds blotched out the crimson sky. The red glow of the heavens itself came down mostly unimpeded; only a piece of it was covered by the eddying overcast that seemed to grow fainter through the passage of time.

I was floating atop an inky, black liquid; what I had thought to be a vast ocean proved now to be nothing more than a mere pool— a puddle that I couldn’t even sink myself into.

I flopped my way out of the sable water, hoping it wouldn’t open up and swallow my being back into nonexistence. My body finally reached the pure, white surface of solid ground, the black liquid dripping off my body almost too easily, returning to whence it came.

The mass of land was far more expansive than the tiny pool of my birth; I looked curiously at the world around me, seeing distant sinuous crests and jutting peaks that piqued my interest. What is that?

I had an inkling of an idea of what they could be: I could comprehend the rough concepts of these shapes, but their true nature evaded me. I was captivated by it. I was drawn towards this strange, new world I had found myself in.

I glanced one last time back at the void that had borne me, and saw nothing staring back at me. I no longer belonged to that world. Somehow, someway, I had squirmed my way out of it. And I would never go back.

—–

I dragged myself through the barren landscape, stopping every so often to investigate anything that I took a fascination to. The black clouds overhead were now nothing more than a speck in the distance, but strangely enough, the place of my birth had receded and vanished altogether.

It was gone. I was not sure why it was gone. I vaguely understood that it was possible for objects to disappear but still remain in existence. However, something told me that that was not the case here.

It mattered not to me. I continued my crawl across the chalky and rocky floor. It was not the most comfortable thing I had experienced— certainly, having no senses meant such disagreeable feelings would never be felt.

This was not something I just knew. This was something I had just learned for myself.

I did not enjoy the poking sensation that came when I was crawling over these tiny rock bits that were scattered all throughout the floor. It almost made me want to return to the puddle— simply floating as time passed was an absolute bliss, unlike this.

But I remembered the overwhelming fear I had of falling back into the abyss. It was not something I wanted. I was alive now, and I treasured that. So I made do with these minor inconveniences, choosing to bear this burden that came with life, pressing forward into the unknown.

…

I only got a little bit further before it got too much for me.

These small objects did not exactly hurt me; they did not pierce through my skin, leaving only brief indents before falling back off onto the floor. My health did not drop from this, yet I was sick and tired of navigating through this rough terrain.

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I lowered my face down to one of these rocks, investigating its features and anything else that stood out to me. Surely something about it would clue me into a way to crawl over them without hurting!

I stared at the first rock, studying its every protrusion on its uneven surface. After pondering it over, I decided this rock was useless on its own— I needed a wider array of observations before a conclusion was made— and moved on to the next.

The second rock was bigger than the first, but just as haphazardly arranged in its shape. I looked over it for another indefinite period of time before looking over the third.

I was contemplating how the third was seemingly as rugged as the first and second on one side of its surface, yet completely smooth on the other, when more words suddenly filled my head.

General Skill [Identification] Level Up!

[Identification – Lvl. 1] -> [Identification – Lvl. 2]!

Experience is awarded for the leveling of a General Skill!

I jerked, immediately losing concentration as I considered the implications of what the words meant. I had… leveled a General Skill? How did I do that? I was just trying to understand a rock—

My vision snapped back at the smooth yet rugged rock I had been eyeing. Whatever nuance that made the third rock distinct from the first and second was beyond my current understanding of the world. But of course, I had Skills I could use. Skills that were supposed to aid me in accomplishing certain tasks.

I barely parsed the use for [Identification] beforehand; its purpose was not something I truly understood. Now, however, I realized it was for identifying objects. It was to give me a better grip of things that were unknown to me.