Inside The Nest
[You have spawned inside a ‹Reaper Shrimp Nest›]
Shara gasped as her consciousness snapped awake. Her heart was beating fast like she had just woken up after a long nightmare.
She looked around her in a daze and saw that she was surrounded by dozens of small transparent eggs, each with underdeveloped creatures slumbering inside of them. What were these weird alien looking things?
Then it came to her, she was a Reaper Shrimp. "Oh wait, I'm inside my species nest..."
She assumed that the reason why she was teleported inside the egg chamber out of all places was because she was considered as a newborn by the System even when she has already upgraded herself, having been 'born' into this word just yesterday.
"Wait, that guy!" She remembered the last thing she saw before getting teleported was the limp body of her eel comrade.
'I hope that guy is alright. That lobster too...' Shara was quite worried. If that eel had died before the countdown ended...
"If I had died before the countdown ended..?" Shara whispered.
[WARNING! If you die, respawning will not be possible.]
"Damn it!" Shara clicked her mandibles. She was wondering if she could spawn back in this nest if she was killed. She felt a small fire of hope by the thought resurrection when this warning doused her mood like cold water.
She suddenly sensed movements coming from outside the chamber and turned around to look.
A big shrimp, almost the same size as Shara, entered the chamber followed by two other smaller shrimps. The caretakers of the eggs has arrived.
The big caretaker paused at sensing the new hatchling in the room, which was Shara. Then, their antennae flickered in confusion.
Why did Shara feel like a Superior class monster? Has a new Queen been born perhaps? No, a Queen's presence wouldn't emit this kind of powerful pressure. This kind of aura was more like those monsters outside that her colony would usually face at night. But there is no mistaking that this hatchling is definitely one of theirs, so what was happening?
The big caretaker's antennae gently stretched out and started to feel Shara's body. Shara didn't know what was happening so she just let the shrimp do what she wanted.
The big caretaker sent out a strange chirping sound towards Shara. The sound created no words and rapidly switched between different pitches like a distorted radio signal, yet she was somehow able to understand the meaning of the chirps.
Apparently, they were wondering what type of work Shara was assigned into.
'Work? Assigned? What is this gal talking about?' Shara also wondered.
Just then, her Profile interface appeared in front of her as if to answer her questions.
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[USER PROFILE]
Name: Shara C. Linn
Username: Arctic_Leviathan
Status: Player
Species: Reaper Shrimp (hatchling)
Occupation: Soldier
Class: Lesser Monster
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Shara read the newly added 'occupation' info on her profile. "I'm a Soldier." she tried to tell the shrimp.
Unlike the high-pitched chirp the other shrimp made, a low menacing screech exited her mouth.
The shrimp paused. They didn't expect this hatchling to screech it's answer back at them instead of chirping. But well, this hatchling was still a part of their colony. They weren't going to be bothered by something as trivial as her way of speech.
The shrimp backed off in relief. Turns out this hatchling was a Soldier and not a mutant.
The Soldiers in their colony were born big and strong, built with the purpose of venturing outside for food and defending the nest from other monsters. Although she did wonder why this one was stranger than the rest of her batches.
She didn't dwell more into it and just thought that this one was a special case.
Since these types of shrimps depend more on their senses rather than their eyesight, the caretaker could only feel the difference in Shara's body and not actually see it.
Thankfully, the shrimp didn't say anything else to her and they turned around to lead the two smaller shrimps inside the chamber to continued doing their own business, which was caring for the eggs and searching for parasites that might have entered the chamber.
'Welp, that's that I guess.' Shara floated awkwardly at the side as she watched the caretakers do their thing.
She kept looking back between the exit and the caretakers a few couple of times and felt troubled. What was she supposed to do now?
Like a clueless child, Shara stayed still at the entrance of the chamber and watched as the caretakers cleaned one egg after another.
After a while of staring at the other shrimps, the System pinged her a notification and finally brought an end to her silent awkwardness.
[You have unread messages.]
Shara perked up. 'Finally! Something to do!' She was starting to feel embarrassed at doing nothing while the caretakers were getting busy with their jobs. She had no idea how to start her job at being a Soldier so she just stayed inside the chamber, not really knowing what to do.
'Open it!' Shara commanded. The notifications section appeared with all of the messages that she had missed when she was fighting, all neatly arranged in a row. Since she was busy doing the Main Scenario, the System automatically hid away the notifications so it wouldn't become a bother to her.
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[NOTIFICATIONS] +20 new messages!
[You have killed a Lesser monster. 10 Body Upgrade Points has been rewarded.]
[You have killed Lesser monster. 10 Body Upgrade Points has been rewarded.]
[You have killed Lesser monster. 10 Body Upgrade Points has been rewarded.]
[You have killed a Lesser monster....]
. . .
[...You have killed a Superior monster. 50 Body Upgrade Points has been rewarded.]
Total Execution Points: 32
Accumulated Body Upgrade Points: 360
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The string of rewards continued on for a while before finally slowing down to a stop.
Unlike before, the given BUP rewards this time was not 500 because the first Main Scenario had already ended by the time the monster swarm was sent out.
However, she did not care about these small numbers. She was waiting for something else to pop up.
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[You have been rewarded 10,000 Body Upgrade Points for completing the second Main Scenario.]
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There it was! Shara's tail swooshed in glee.
Although 10,000 was still a small number compared to her previously accumulated BUP when she was still human, it was good enough to last for a while. Adding to that was the BUP she had gathered through killing monsters, so now she had 10,360 BUP in total!
Shara felt very much accomplished. Her tail subconsciously swooshed behind her at this thought.
The caretakers have finished checking over the eggs. They turned around to leave only to pause when they felt that Shara was still outside the chamber. They've been so focused with their work that they have completely forgotten about her. All of them were confused on why she still had not left.
The big shrimp told the two caretakers to leave first before going over to Shara again.
Chirp- chirp-
Shara's attention snapped back to the big shrimp. She shuffled in embarrassment at being asked if something was the matter with her.
After a while of mulling of what to say to the other shrimp, she settled with just being upfront about her confusion.
"What kind of work should I do around here?" Shara screeched out with a moderately lowered volume this time. When compared to the other's pleasant chirps to her ugly screeches, Shara subconsciously lower her voice as she spoke in fear of accidentally displeasing the other one with her loud screeches.
The other shrimp tilted its head curiously. Not only was this hatchling strange in build, but it also needed to be taught?
Not to worry. The job of a caretaker was to care for the young. If a hatchling was in trouble, it would gladly lend its help.
Letting out a cheerful chirp, the big shrimp turned around and beckoned Shara to follow.