The King of Worms (Ch. 1)

CHAPTER ONE

A forest full of trees start to shake their leaves as a weak swirl of wind blows by. A single leaf is shaken of its branch and starts falling down towards the ground, but before it can touch the ground, it lands on the top of a sleeping black worm instead. This causes the worm to start waking up and look at its surroundings.

Black Worm = (lifts upper part of its body) (yawns) Hm? What is with all these trees around me? (looks around) Everything seems so big, actually ... everything is huge! Where did I go to sleep at? Oh well, time to get up and go back home. (tries to stand up) (falls/face plants into the ground) Heh? Why did I fall? (turns head to look at lower half of body) WHAT?! Where did my legs go? Where did my arms go as well? Actually, where did my whole body go?

Black Worm * I guess I should start explaining my dilemma, but before that, my name is Ekkel, no last name at all, only Ekkel. I was born as this Black Worm you see before you, but I grew out of it and had my own life, but suddenly I am back to this state of being?! At least I have my intelligence still ... actually I hope it is all there, let me just ...

Ekkel = Ok, I have to see what my current situation is, first things first, [Self Inspect]. (nothing happens) Heh? um ... [Self Inspect] (nothing happens) ... Wait ... is my mana all gone? As long as I hold at least 10 mana I should use that Inspection skill!

Ekkel * To explain my problem of lack of mana, I will tell you how I use mana, I am a bit of a special case where I can use the Root Mana Holder, simply by consuming things that already hold Mana. From that point, I can use other Roots. So, think of me as an actual holding facility of Mana, and to have Mana, I must get sources of Mana for myself. Currently, I appear to hold no Mana at all.

Ekkel = Ok, I guess I cannot use the Shape Shift skills either, well ... oh! I can use [Weak Inspect] on a reflection of me. I just need to find a ... (looks around area) reflection of sorts. (looks around more carefully) (sees a puddle) Ah! That should work just enough. (begins to crawl over, after having a little confrontation with the lack of legs to move around) Dang, it took me a short while to get used to this form again. (arrives at the puddle) (leans head over puddle to look at reflection) Eh? I only have a mouth? How can I see then? (begins to think for a few seconds) Ah! It must be from the [Awareness of Area] skill that I can see, it is a skill that doesn’t need any mana to activate, in fact, I am pretty sure it is a skill that is always active no matter what.

Ekkel * This is not the case, I found this out around 300 years ago, but I use this skill through the Aura User Root, and I instinctively use it all the time, not because I find it useful, but because my body simply got used to it, my body activates it automatically. You can easily get addicted to this skill, and that is because it enhances your eyesight greatly, you notice a lot more details than usual, and you’re reaction time increases rapidly the more you use it, but there is a reason why you shouldn’t use it. [Awareness of Area] is a skill that basically adds another eye to you, if you are not ready for it, it can cause you to freak out every time you use it. Another thing about this skill that really freaks some people out, you can actively move this “eye” around you. This means you can detach it from your body and move it wherever you wish, even through physical objects, this is a complete reason why people avoid using it, but those who get used to it and master the ability are capable of being great hunters. After all, this Leaf is under the Hunting branch.

Ekkel = Ok, now time to use [Weak Inspect]! ... (nothing happens) Heh?! Ok don’t worry, I guess I just have to say the lines out loud. (begins to open mouth) (keeps mouth open) ... (closes mouth) ... I don’t have any vocal cords?! Ugh, is this state of being not capable of doing anything? I can’t believe this at all, it took me a long time to make those vocal cords! And now I can’t even try to form them because I have no mana. (sigh) ok! So my lack of mana is causing a lot of problems already, but I am not entirely useless right now, after all, this state of being is still capable of collecting mana, I just need something that has mana in it already. (looks around once more) I don’t think there is any trace of mana around me, no flowers for me to even try with, and these trees look normal enough to only be used for as wood. Ah! The trees, if I eat through it, I can just tunnel myself to the top of get a higher point to look around.. (crawls to the tree and arrives at tree) ok, time to get to work! (bites at tree root) ... (lets go of tree root) ow, why couldn’t I eat through that? I am pretty sure a tree has an eating resistance of 50? ... wait, don’t tell me ... did my eating power also vanish?!

Ekkel * Ok, so Eating Resistance and Eating Power, it isn’t anything really special, and these aren’t the complete technical terms, but I got used to calling them this way. Basically, everything has an Eating Resistance and Eating Power, Simple Dirt has an Eating Resistance of 1, but no Eating Power due to lack of anything capable of eating. While a Tree has an Eating Resistance of 50, a Rock has an Eating Resistance of 100, and so on. It basically is just how difficult it is to bite into it. Now Eating Power is how strong someone’s bite is, a human baby usually has an Eating Power of around 5 or under. A dragon in dragon form usually has an Eating Power that goes over 1000 easily. This Eating Power can be trained to increase. Same applies to Eating Resistance, however it isn’t as easy for inanimate objects, but it can happen in a few cases.

Ekkel = The longer I complain, the slower I can get out of this mess. So if my Eating Power is gone, I should just get it back. Well, I should be able to eat this Dirt easily (a shadow crosses over the ground) (surprised, Ekkel looks up) Ah, it’s an Arial, I should probably go underground anyways until I am capable of defending myself against those. (lowers head towards the Dirt, and bites into the ground) Ah, the ground is very rough, is my Eating Power below 5?

Ekkel * Specifically, my Eating Power was at this moment a 2.

Ekkel = Ugh, at least I can eat it, that is some progress. (takes a mouthful of dirt into mouth) (swallows) ok ... that was more harder than I thought ... hm, actually I wonder if I am able to use that skill? I was able to when I was created ... ok (Ekkel moves his head closer to the dirt) (Ekkel opens his mouth) use [Consume]! (a pile of dirt is instantly clumps together and is thrown into Ekkel’s mouth) [Consume]! (another pile of dirt is thrown into Ekkel’s mouth) [Consume]! (another pile is added into Ekkel’s mouth) Ok, I think three is my current maximum, thank god using that skill squeezes the dirt together first and then tosses it, now time for the hard part, (Ekkel consumes the dirt within 3 seconds) it is done quickly, but not easily, wow ... I shouldn’t have energy, so I shouldn’t even be tired but after doing all that is really taking a toll on me, oh well, time to get to work!

Ekkel then continues to use the skill [Consume] 3 times and then swallows it down, he does this while tunneling down and around a root of the tree nearest to him. Clearing space away from the roots, after after repeating the sequence 20 times, Ekkel stops eating dirt

Ekkel = Ok! These roots shouldn’t have that much of Eating Resistance as the tree does. They do have more Eating Resistance than dirt however, so they should help me much more. (Ekkel goes to the roots, and starts to take a bite out of it) ok, now all I have to do is just rip this piece away from the other root and eat it (Ekkel thrashes his body around, trying to tear the piece of root away) (the root finally is torn away after the fifth tug) Ok, now time to eat! (Ekkel takes the root into his mouth and swallows) phew! That went down a bit rough. It should have increased my Eating Power a bit more however! I really wish I can check what it was though, that could really help cool down my anxiety of not knowing. Well, I should at least work a lot to know I at least have a fair amount of Eating Power.

Ekkel then continues the cycle of using [Consume] on the roots, until he is unable to use it anymore, due to his Eating Power not being high enough. In which case he continues to [Consume] the dirt around other roots, and swallows up everything he can. When he is finished with this routine, Ekkel has used the [Consume] skill on 72 clumps of dirt, and 34 pieces of roots. Ekkel can now [Consume] up to 10 clumps of dirt before swallowing, each clump weighing more in mass than the previous 3 clumps he could originally [Consume] at a time. This is causing more dirt to be consumed, which has increased Ekkel’s Eating Power of 2 to 25. And Ekkel’s original length of 5 inches has grown into 3 feet and 8 inches.

Ekkel = Eating dirt has gotten much easier, but the roots to this tree are entirely gone, and I have grown quite a length, I should be careful of anyone seeing me and mistaking me for a snake, and I can’t use the Morph skills to change my length either. So I should continue to stay underground anyways. Going to another tree to eat it’s root is a plan, however if I eat a tunnel down further into the ground, the dirt should get tougher and it’s Eating Resistance should be more than the roots, I believe my current Eating Power is strong enough for this to be more beneficial. So, time to start eating more dirt.

Ekkel goes to burrow down further into his hole in the ground, soon exiting the shallow dirt and entering much more rougher dirt and cane across a few stones that he was big enough to just [Consume] in one bite. After two hours, Ekkel has succeeded in using [Consume] on 279 clumps of dirt, some shallow, most rough. 19 pieces of rocks, can eat up to 18 pieces of dirt at a time. Eating Power has increased to 37. Ekkel has grown to 15 feet and 4 inches in length. Ekkel is also 1 foot and 9 inches wide. The current Eating Resistance of rough dirt that surrounds Ekkel is 15.

Ekkel = I have definitely made some progress again, but I really need to get some more significant progress, quicker I can get out of this state of being the better, I need to some how get at least 75 Mana to use the Morph Skill [Weak Simple Resize] to make myself appear more like a worm, because at this point I might be thought of as a baby land serpent type of monster. I can’t have anyone attacking me, my Eating Resistance is currently unknown to me so I have no idea if I can survive a stab from any weapon. However ... if I do attack a being successfully I can simply eat their mana, if they have some, and it is very likely that they do. Ah! I shouldn’t be thinking that, if I attack anyone then my relationship with the people will decrease if they ever find our it was me, plus that might encourage them to put out a request to have be killed! Can’t risk that at all, I guess I just have to go up and try to nibble on the tree in hopes of that increasing my Eating Power enough, however I have to be careful around the Aria- the Arials! I can try to eat those! Their Eating Resistance is usually around 35 to 40, and they should be very likely to use Mana because of their use of the Air Element to attack others. I have to be careful around them so that they won’t kill me either, so I guess I have to lure them close enough to use [Consume] on them, but how? (Ekkel stays quiet for a while) Oh! I should be big enough to simply crawl up a tree right now, on top of one I should just be able to lure an Arial around to me. (Ekkel turns around in his tunnel) Time to get out of here! (Ekkel quickly goes upwards out of his tunnel, however he gets stuck in a certain area) Ah, I guess I grew too big while I was underground, guess I have to eat some dirt to get out of here. (Ekkel starts to use the skill [Consume] on his way up, which makes the travel a bit more easier) (Ekkel soon comes out of his tunnel) (Ekkel then turns around to the tree he originally tried to eat, and crawls around the base of the tree, and starts slithering upwards) (Ekkel soon enters in the leaves of the tree) Ok! Time to see where the closest Arial is! (Ekkel peeks out of the leaves to notice that the sun is still rising) Ah, I wonder if it is just past Morning? Oh! That means the Arials should start getting busy around- (a huge thud can be heard in the distance) Whoa! What in the Juytings was that?! (Ekkel turns around to see a sight of 6 Arials bursting out of trees and flying towards his way) Oh! Seems like I am in business! Don’t have time to worry about that noise right now! (Ekkel lies his most upper body back down into the branches, and starts to lift his tail and lower body out of the leaves, and starts shaking the tip of his tail around) Hope this baits then to come to me. (soon Ekkel hears wings flapping closer to him, when he peeks out he sees an Arials figure very close, Ekkel waits until it gets closer. When it is close enough, Ekkel pounces out of the tree and towards the Arial, and takes a big bite towards its body) (Ekkel and the Arial both crash onto the ground) Ok! Success, now time to (Ekkel turns around to the Arial, and quickly frowns) ... this ... this is a Kerto Piper ... why ... ugh why did this Arial have to be around? They are one of the few Arials that don’t use any Mana for anything. (sigh) At least I can get some Eating Power from it, their Eating Resistance is around 34, so this should be more help for a while. (Ekkel uses [Consume] on the Kerto Piper) Ok, time to continue this Bait and Kill technique, I hope it is the last time I have to do it this way. (Ekkel begins to climb up the tree again)

Ekkel then continues luring 16 Kerto Pipers to him, and uses [Consume] on all of them after making sure each one was dead. This has resulted in some rather decent growth, with his Eating Power going to 64, and his length growing to 20 feet perfectly, and 3 feet wide.

Ekkel = Ok! I think that is enough for now, so I should do my next part of the plan. Which was ... (remembers his plan) ... go into a tree and look around this forest to see where to go next. Can’t believe I forgot that, well, this is the last time I go up this tree. So time to just get this over with.

Ekkel turns around and starts to slither up the tree one last time.

End of Chapter One

Ekkel’s Profile
Height: depends on how he stands.
Width: 3 feet
Length: 20 Feet
Eating Power: 64
Eating Resistance: Currently Unknown
Mana: 0
Appearance: Long, Black, Appears
Very Serpent-like