I rest now.
After touching the moss wall—after brushing against something that felt like it was meant to cover what lay beyond or in—I felt something vast behind it.
But I didn't press further.
Not because I was afraid…but because I knew I wasn't ready.
So I drew back. Back into the softness of the moss-thick patch near where I first rooted.
A place that now feels like mine.
There's a rhythm to my mornings now.
I don't know how long a "day" really is, but I've come to feel the rise of light, the fall of rain, the return of warmth in the soil like the beginning of a song I don't remember learning—but know by heart.
And when that first pulse of morning sap flows through me,
I remember:
I can look at my stats.
I don't know why I know that.
Or what stats even are.
But it feels like counting what's inside me.
Measuring… myself?
So I try.
And the system responds.
⊹ SYSTEM CHECK
🌱 Seedling Status Overview – Day 5
Name: ???
Race: Plantae
Species: Seedling (Very Common)
Level: 3
Evolution Tier: 0 – Sproutbound
Health: 1
Strength: 0
Agility: 0
Stamina: 0
Vital Sap: 6 / 6
Photosynthesis: +0.4/hr
Mana Conduction: Inactive
Soil Affinity: Mild
Sunlight Exposure: 13%
EXP: 6 / 18
Ability Points: 0
Skills:
— Instinctive Rooting (Passive)
— Sapling Senses (Passive)
— Minor Vine Tendril (Active)
— Tremor Whisper (Passive)
— Photosensitive Leaflet (Active)
Traits:
— Root Whisperer (Lv. 2)
— Grief Resonance (Passive)
Territory Condition: Stable
Emotional Trace: Calm
I read the words—or whatever it is my mind does when the screen appears.
I feel them more than understand them, but they mean something to me now.
I linger on each one.
Vital Sap: 6 / 6
This one I know best.
It's the warmth that flows inside me.
It moves when the sun touches my leaf.
It swells when the soil is good.
It feels like home, inside my body.
Health: 1
Still so fragile.
Like a single petal in the wind.
One wrong thing could end me.
But maybe that's why I'm careful.
Maybe that's why I listen.
Strength: 0
I know I'm weak.
Even my vine struggles to curl tightly.
I couldn't hold anything, even if I wanted to.
But someday… I might.
Someday I'll reach farther.
Agility: 0
I'm slow.
Not in thought, maybe, but in movement.
When something shifts in the soil, I feel it—
but my vine doesn't always move in time.
Maybe when I'm faster,
I won't just react.
I'll respond.
Stamina: 0
This one makes sense.
Whenever I stretch too far or stay too tense, I feel tired.
Even if I'm not sure what tired really is.
Maybe this will grow with time.
Like I do.
Photosynthesis: +0.4/hr
I don't understand the numbers.
But I know the feeling:
When the sun hits my leaf, something trickles into me.
It's gentle. Golden. Warm.
I want more of that.
Soil Affinity: Mild
This one changes.
The better the dirt feels under me, the better I feel.
Some places hum. Some places itch.
But here, near the wall, it feels… good.
I think the soil likes me. Maybe I like it back.
Mana Conduction: Inactive
I pause on this one.
Mana.
The word feels heavy. Important.
But right now, it's just asleep inside me.
I don't know what it is. Only that one day, I'll wake it.
And maybe it will wake something in me too.
I close the screen gently—like folding a leaf back over itself.
I hum. Only it's not sound. Not really.
It's a vibration that vibrates quietly inside my mind—soft and pulsing. Like thought becoming music.
Not from confusion but from connection.
This system isn't a stranger anymore. It feels like the soft soil around me—something I can grow inside of. Something that grows with me. But I'm also tending it. I'm learning its rhythms. Feeling its roots grow deeper into mine.
The moss wall is still there.
I don't press toward it again. Not today. Maybe in another cycle?
Some things are meant to be discovered slowly.
Like soil.
Like sun.
Like self.
And when I am ready…I'll reach back to it.
For now, I simply exist.
And that—
that is enough.
⊹ SYSTEM NOTICE ⊹
Environmental activity low.
Photosynthesis suspended.
Vital Sap conservation active.
Cognitive awareness entering low-energy mode.
You are now entering Dormant State.
Sunlight required to resume active function.