The view from the first tree didn’t provide the snail with any idea where to go to find higher quality plants; neither did the second, nor the third. The snail continued to travel in the general direction of the rising sun, climbing a new tree every few days. Fights with beetles occurred with a frequency that alarmed the snail, but with Ensnare at level 2, the snail could usually drive off any beetle that didn’t become permanently glued to the snail’s shell. On two unfortunate occasions, the snail had to emerge from its shell and drag the struggling beetle against a plant stem to glue it against the shell where it could no longer bite. The snail became quite practiced at scraping dead beetles off the side of its shell, though it usually had at least one dying passenger at any point.

  *ding*

  

  Level up: 4

  The Snail waved its olfactory tentacles in celebration as it finished absorbing the experience from the eighth dead beetle. A level up meant more points!

  *ding*

  

  Physique +1: 5 points. Purchase?

  Physique +1: 5 points. Purchase?

  The snail, naturally, spent all ten new points on its physique stat. “If my physique stat had been any lower, I would have fallen off the rock wall or died in the fight with that first beetle.” The snail resolved to continue improving its physique forever. The experience from dead beetles wasn’t the only rewards from the snail’s travels.

  *ding*

  

  Slimy level up: 3

  Hide in shell level up: 3

  After a few weeks traveling at a snail’s pace, the snail saw something new from the top of a tree. Off to the south, something white and frothy shot into the air and fell back out of sight. Mist remained in the air and drifted slowly away. The snail pondered and wondered about what it had just seen. After a few minutes, the snail decided any change was worth investigating.

  On the way towards the white anomaly, the snail’s Tremor sense began to inform the snail of… something. The signal was faint, but the snail couldn’t make any sense of what Tremor sense was telling it. “It feels like something falling, but its below me? Rocks are shaking and grinding together, but it feels like its all around me.” The snail swung its eye stalks back and forth just in case it had missed a pile of oddly behaving rocks, but it was in an ordinary patch of forest.

  The snail was skimming the edge of a hole in the ground when a ground tremor shook hard enough to dislodge the snail. The snail used Hide in shell, but didn’t manage to fully retract before crashing to the ground. Fortunately, the snail landed on soft green plants and was mostly unhurt. “I don’t recognize these plants.” The snail thought. It used Identify.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  *ding*

  

  Fern (basic)

  “Oh! A different quality of plant, is it a better quality? I hope so!” The snail excitedly began munching on the fronds of the nearest fern. Soon enough, it’s work was rewarded with a point. The snail waved its tentacles in joy.

  Tremor sense continued to provide confusing information, but the snail ignored it and ate every single fern that wasn’t ‘poor’ or ‘worthless’ quality. The snail took a short break from eating plants when heavy rain started crashing down into the hole.After a few days of gorging itself, the snail had earned 14 points. Combining those with its one unspent point, the snail boosted its physique by three points.

  *ding*

  With the supply of higher quality ferns exhausted, the snail decided to investigate a confusing nearby Tremor sense signal. It crept along the bottom of the hole, which turned out to be some sort of tunnel through the stone. The ground was pleasantly moist, and the darkness of the tunnel felt warm and safe. The ground had a slight downward slope and the snail traced a path through deposits of sand and rock chips. Eventually, the tunnel began to rise again, but the snail ran into a dead end. Tremor sense hadn’t made any sense of the signal yet, but the snail realized that it felt a strong draw in the same direction that Tremor sense was leading it.

  “What is it? I want to go to it. I don’t know what it is!” The snail puzzled through its feelings as it sat at the dead end of the tunnel. Tremor sense brought the sense of underground falling rocks again, but before the snail could consider the information, the floor of the tunnel collapsed. Danger sense screamed the whole way down.

  *ding*

  

  You have entered a pocket of high energy. Result: All regeneration rates multiplied by 2

  Quest: Fix your shell. Description: Find sufficient compatible materials to repair your shell

  The snail lay on a pile of broken rock. “Ow.” The snail whimpered. It tried to extend its foot and look around, but every motion brought agony. When the snail could think again, it checked its health.

  *ding*

  “Not good. Very bad.” The snail thought. It lay motionless as it waited for the pain to subside. After several hours, the snail’s health had stopped increasing.

  *ding*

  “Oh no…” The snail’s disappointment felt like one of the rocks had crushed its shell all over again. “I guess I’m not going to get any better than this until my shell recovers.” The snail carefully extended its foot and eye stalks.

  The snail looked around at another underground tunnel. This tunnel was lit by small red and yellow lights embedded in the walls and ceiling. The snail could see all the way to a curve in the tunnel in one direction, and a pile of rubble in the other direction. With the snail equivalent of a mental shrug, the snail began to crawl down the rock pile. The snail’s broken shell shifted unpleasantly as it began to move.