Day 8:
Naruto woke up groggily. Having slept in the warm caves until today, he was not used to sleeping outside and in the cold. He floated down softly before letting out the wastes in a happy arc.
"Ah..." he sighed in relief.
Morning piss.
Such a wonderful feeling.
His ears perked up as he heard shuffling feet approaching his location. He quickly flew back up the tree.
"Probably the hunters," he muttered. "They did set up the trap early in the night."
The hunters cheered as they saw the wolves that were killed by the spike trap, but other than that, they didn't seem to find anything else.
"So those wolves must've escaped," he muttered, thinking about the alpha and the two other wolves that had been caught in the rope net trap. He watched the hunters leave, taking their spoils with them.
After they left, Naruto jumped back down and stretched his stiff limbs. "Oohh~... That hits the spot. I guess it's time to go back to the enclave," he said to himself. He took a look around once before he flew away.
When he came back, though, everyone stared at him as if he had done something incredulous.
He looked around sheepishly, scratching the back of his head as he made his way through towards his usual spot. 'Did I do something wrong?' he thought to himself as he moved sluggishly. He was still tired from his nightly expedition, and so he had to slowly move his way towards his destination while laboring underneath the stares of many others who were whispering.
His [Listening] was good enough to make out most of the whispers were of shock and awe for reasons he did not yet know.
It was then that the Old Imp approached him.
The other imps were ... shocked and in awe of Imp Ruto.
Last night had been the the most terrifying nights for the entire imp population of the forest.
There were deaths everywhere the night before. Cries of animals had rung clearly in the night as they mourned for their lost brethren. Wolves howled for theirs killed by human traps. A bear was on a rampage, destroying multiple nests of various creatures of the forest in its wake. Just this morning, less than an hour before Ruto came back, survivors from other imp colonies came in search of refuge. The stories they told of how a bear had broken through the Thin Rock enclave and decimated the imps there with no remorse whatsoever. The survivors swore when questioned that they were the only ones to survive from the Thin Rock enclave.
The story terrified many of the imps of this enclave.
And just after all those stories were heard by all of the imps walks in Imp Ruto, looking only slightly ruffled.
Speculations as to how Ruto had survived the night rose.
The first whispers talked about how he may have hidden among the treetops. Another set of whispers debunked the first by stating the bear's rampage would not have spared a little tree. And as rumors do, they twisted and changed with each mouth and ear they passed through. In the end, the only thing left was the "obvious" answer.
Imp Ruto must have killed the bear's mate and killed the wolves.
When the Old Imp heard about the rumors, he immediately dismissed them. While he may have been the first to admit that Imp Ruto was different from the rest of them, there was no way a week old imp could kill a bear or kill more than one wolf. He simply refused to believe the nonsense. It couldn't be more than just that as well: a rumor. A rumor that had gone wild when he was too busy taking care of the newcomers.
Then Imp Ruto came back looking stronger than ever.
A seed of doubt sprung within the Old Imp, but there was worry as well. Was Imp Ruto hurt?
So he approached the said imp in the hopes to know more.
"Ruto."
Naruto stopped scratching the ground depressedly and looked up. "Oh. Hi, Old Imp."
The Old Imp had a frown on his face. "Where were you yesterday? We were worried sick."
"..." he looked away. "I slept outside."
"But why? The caves are warm and safe from danger. The outside is dangerous."
"I know."
"You ... know?"
Naruto shrugged. "I ran into a bear and some wolves last night," he said, not explicitly stating what he had done. It wasn't like he and the rest of the imps were going to believe that he used human traps to kill wolves and managed to piss of a bear, right?
The Old Imp, on the other hand, looked thunderously shocked. "Y-You ran into a bear?! How did you survive?!" he shouted as he took Ruto by his shoulders and shook him.
Naruto was surprised by the Old Imp's strength. Well, that was probably Naruto himself was weak thanks to the trait he took ... now he felt depressed again, thinking about himself being weird and awkward.
"I just floated away. That's all I did. Nothing fancy..." he muttered, which made the Old Imp let go.
"...How did you fly in the first place?"
Naruto paused, and looked up.
"You don't know how to fly?"
That started what Naruto called the "Flying Frenzy." After the rest of the imps learned that Naruto could fly, they pestered him until he agreed to teach them how to fly.
Initially, it was hard -and very close to impossible. Naruto's whole power revolved around learning, not teaching. The best thing he could do was teach how he come to fly himself.
"Imagine a pool of ... stuff inside you. Ever flowing and never stopping. Imagine this power wrapping around you like a cocoon. Then let it 'sprout' wings. Once it does, use those 'wings' to fly."
"That's a very vague description of how this is supposed to work," the imp in front of Naruto muttered. This was the same imp that had appraoched Naruto after his first rabbit kill.
Naruto shrugged. "That's more than what I had to work with when I first started flying," he replied. "Come on, then. Let's see you fly."
The imp grunted before it closed its eyes. It breathed in and out slowly.
He observed. Thank the gods that his [Observe] was now at a all high of 10. It now allowed him to see mana. Without this level of [Observe], it would have been much harder -but not impossible- to teach the rest of the imps how to fly.
He could "see" or rather feel the fairy-demonic power of the imp slowly rising out of the skin, forming a shell that hung tightly around itself. It must be getting an image of sort in its head about how its mana was surrounding it, because it was looking confused and somewhat awed. Then slowly, even more slowly than the minute long skin-shell formation, several wires of sort sprung out of the shell ... and the imp began to float.
It opened its eyes, and let out a squeal.
Naruto nodded in approval. "Good, now try t-"
Thunk.
And it fell down.
It flew up too fast and struck the cave ceiling. "And there you go, being an idiot. Don't just pump your mana into flying. You just don't have the necessary controls for something like that."
Ping.
New Skill!
Talking Down (LvL 1) (Passive)
*Have (your CHA*INT - target's CHA)% + (EVENT_ROLL_OUT_OF_100*0.5)% of discouraging the target.
*Discouraged target(s) get "Discouraged" debuff, reducing all of their status by (your CHA*3 - target's CHA)
*Available only to Cynical traits; if you lose the Cynical trait, this skill has 40% chance of disappearing and resets itself.
Naruto raised an eyebrow at that. As interesting as this new skill was, he had no intention of discouraging his current student. He watched the imp slowly get up and pout. He just scoffed at the imp's lack of a backbone after a such small comment. "Get up and try again before I lose interest."
It sniffled a little but it did as Naruto told it to.
"Do this... and maybe..."
"No no no, you don't make wings first, you make the cocoon first. No, you idiot!"
"Please for the love of god..."
"Oh, good work."
He walked out of the cave, and slowly let himself down on the top of the small hill of the colony. Then he abruptly flopped over on his back.
Today had been exhausting. Teaching was ... hard.
"Damn, you sure had it tough with a kid like me, Iruka-sensei," he muttered to himself.
New Trait!
[Teacher (Neutral)
"You have understood the art of information dissemination, but how good are you?" -?
+5 CHA "teacher" modifier when teaching
+5 CHA "Mentor" modifier towards an individual when first introduced as a teacher
-Dangerous along with [Depressed] trait when students are unruly
-01000011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01000011 01101111 01110010 01110010 01110101 01110000 01110100 01100101 01100100
New Skill!
Teaching LvL 1
+ (Your INT*CHA - target's INT*STR[if below half of your INT])% of disseminating an idea or skill to your target.
...
What the fuck was that last aspect on the trait?
LvL Up!
+2 INT
+2 WIS
+2 CHA
Genius trait has given you extra points!
"...Eh."
Naruto had decided to simply forget about the new trait, though he was worried about its only legible negative aspect, and went back inside to get some sleep.
That was when he met the Old Imp along with his first student waiting at the mouth of the cave.
"Oh, so you didn't run off," the Old Imp commented. "I was sure that a youngster with brains like you would've run off already."
Naurto scoffed at that. "You sound like you don't want me here."
"I don't."
There was a moment of pause between the three of them before Naruto slowly sank down. "Okay..." he muttered as he wrote gibberish in the ground in depression. 'Fuck this depression...'
"That was a joke."
A vein popped up on Naruto's forehead.
"But we were wondering if you were going to indeed be out for the night again."
Naruto shook his head. "No, not today. I spent a lot of energy inside. Although I am a little hungry..."
Just then, the small imp ran back into the cave, much to the two others' confusion, and brought back a ... meat covered in leaf?
"I kept it washed. Used a bit of honey to keep it preserved."
Naruto thanked the imp. "Now, let's go get some sleep. I know I'm ready for some time off."
Day 9:
Naruto grumbled as his empty stomach woke him up rather abruptly. It was time to hunt and eat ... but he didn't want to do that.
Ping!
You have fully rested! Stress LvL has gone down due to special event. HP fully restored.
Well, that's nice. 'I wonder if today's going to be hectic as the other two,' he thought to himself as he rose up and stretched out his limbs. There was a pop and then another before he felt his whole body slack in relaxation. "Aw, yeah. That's the spot," he muttered to himself, and he flopped back down on the hay-covered spot he called his bed.
Just then, his stomach growled.
He scratched the back of his head as he stood up. "Okay, time to go hunting."
"Wait."
Naruto stopped and looked over his back.
There, the same imp that he had first taught how to fly and gave a piece of leftover meat. He shrugged. "Well?"
"Take me with you."
"You sure about that?"
Imp *** POV
I needed to get strong. The seventh day after my birth, or so I was told that it was, I went out into the world to explore. I first thought that the world was going to be awesome! The Old Imp talked about the kind elves and while different but still nice fairies!
Then I saw ... a murder. It was a human with a struggling fairy in his hand. With a evil grin, he ripped the fairy's wings off, talking about the wings being some kind of an ingrediant, and left the fairy to die. I tried to help, but the fairy still died anyway.
I don't want other nice creatures like fairies and us imps to be hurt by those humans. I wanted to get strong. No, I needed to get strong. I would protect this forest from them!
On the same day, I ran into someone who was strong, despite his size.
Imp Ruto. He was different. He looked weak, but he was able to fly and lift stones. He even killed a rabbit!
It was amazing, so I ended up stalking him and got caught. But for some reason, he just freaked me out and left the rest of the meat for me, which I ate.
Then, the day after, he came back after the bear rampage. Despite his claims, he looked stronger, more self-assured. It was the reason why I decided to follow him around, even if I have to sneak around behind him. I wanted to be strong like him.
No, I will become stronger!
"Yes."
Naruto just shrugged. "Alright, then let's go. We'll be hunting rabbits again today, but I expect you to catch at least one yourself."
The smaller imp nodded. "Got it."
"Good."
By the end of the day, Naruto and his follower imp caught two rabbits each, and had a feast to themselves.
Day 10:
Naruto woke up with a yawn, and saw that his follower imp was still there. "You know, I never got to ask you your name."
"... I'm Imp Shirou."
"And I'm Imp Ruto, but you already know that."
"...Are we hunting again?"
"Yup," Naruto grinned. "But today, we're gonna go for something bigger!"
Day 11:
"Let's not hunt something bigger today."
"Why not? We only almost lost my head yesterday."
Day 12:
"See? Just hunting rabbit is good enough!"
"But I need to complete my quest."
Day 14:
"I respected you, Ruto, but now I hate you!"
"Don't say that! This is fun!"
"Fuck you too! I don't find running from wolves any more 'fun' than eating their shit!"
Day 17:
"No, Shirou. You can't keep those swords."
"But they're awesome!"
"And what happens if the human owner comes back from his hunt and finds it missing? There are no fairies in this forest, you know. He'll try to find us for it. You do realize that it probably is not a good thing."
Day 20:
Naruto had to admit. In the span of two weeks and then some, Imp Shirou had seen some personality changes.
For example, he used to be shy, timid, and stalkerish. He imitated Naruto and tried to improve himself everyday. He tried to appear as confident as others told Naruto seemed to be like. From Naruto's perspective, it was the whole of gremlinkind -imps and the like- that had confidence issue, not him who had overabundance of it.
Now, though, Imp Shirou was nothing like that anymore. His imitation of Naruto had died a little, but he was no longer timid and shy, nor was he a stalker. He stated what was on his mind when it seemed appropriate, and had a sense of self that grew bigger each day. "No, I don't want to go on another round of 'wolf chase.' Remember last time? No, I'm not going just because you asked me."
Naruto couldn't be more proud of Imp Shirou.
Imp Shirou, on the other hand, seemed to be very upset with himself.
"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked Shirou as they returned from their latest successful hunt by the lakeside. They had caught seven fishes between them, even one that outweighed both of them combined. Despite such achievement, Shirou seemed to be down.
"I don't get it. I want to move up the growth system, but I can't evolve at all. I roamed with you, facing dangers, hunting down stuff, and I still can't move up."
Naruto blinked as he realized that he himself had not. He had forgotten about it in his adventure around the forest with Imp Shirou.
"Huh," he muttered to himself as he realized the fact.
Ping!
New Quest!
To become More (Growth Focus Storyline Part 1)
You have realized that while your current lifestyle may not be bad, it can be worse if laid in the path of destruction. It cannot be protected, and it certainly cannot be continued as you now know this. For this reason, you must become more than what you are.
Requirement:
*Reach the LvL of 20 before you are 30 days of age.
*Gain at least a total of 25 point worth of status for each aspect. (Total: 34, 37, 35, 36, 56, 48, 33, 31, 38, 29)
*Do not die
Bonus Objective:
*Ambitious - gain at least 30 point worth of status for each aspect.
Success:
+1 LvL
+10 HP
+5 to all status aspect
+Removal of [Weak] trait
Failure:
*Depression-Suicide activation: 50% suicide success
Naruto paled.
Wut? Suicide?
(End of Chapter)
Character Status by the end of Day 20
Naruto [Imp Ruto]
LvL 12
The Gamer
HP: 46.5 (+1.5 Max HP per day until a month old)(+1 HP per hour regen)
Mana: 440 (+4.4 per minute regen)
STR: 9
DEX: 12
AGI: 10
END: 11
INT: 21
WIS: 23
CHA: 8
Unused Points: 27
Spirit: 6
Magic: 13
Power: 4
Traits Taken:
Ambitious, Quick, Genius, Weak, Cynical, Depressed, Content, Teacher[Neutral]
Focus:
Growing
Skills:
Baiting (LvL 2)
Fairy Flying (LvL 5)
Fishing (LvL 2)
Intimidation (LvL 1)
Listening (LvL 2)
Rock Throwing (LvL