Alrite, no speech this time, let's get into it!
When I came up with the name for this little feller, I just came up kind of short. You wore masks at masquerades. Masquerades were parties, and medieval parties were balls, like AC/DC neato song about them. But Masquerade Butterfly just didn't sound right, you catch me? Hrm, now that I think about it, I could have named it Masquerade Moth, couldn't I? Yeah, but it's a butterfly, so anyhoo! Onto the skills!
You already know what Advanced Flight and Leech do, so I don't need to explain them.
Shapeshift allows the user to temporarily transform into another creature, in this case, an Elfling. This allows the Ballgown Butterfly to use Elf Language and Basic Life Magic, which the butterfly cannot use in normal form. Elf Language grants the user knowledge of the Elf Language, and Basic Life Magic is what it sounds like.
As it i basic, it can't do too much, but in Elf society, being able to use Life Magic is basically a status of nobility, so it's good to have. Life magic is derived from earth and light magic, and is rarer among elves than humans. It can be used to heal wounds or manipulate plants. It can also be used to remove life from things, but that is considered a whole other school of magic and is pretty much forbidden.
Fear causes the opponent to feel fear of the host. It is passive and constantly active, so it's a bitch to have if you want friends.
Ballgown Butterflies aren't technically predatory in nature and are more omnivorous, but they do have Leech as a skill, mostly as a final line of defence. Kind of shitty.
The spells our guy would have gotten, the basic Life ones, are as follows:
Heal, a simple spell that can either heal the Health of the user or an outside person or living creature.
and Bind, which, if performed on nutrient-rich soil containing plant-life, causes a myriad of small vines to emerge from the ground to bind the opponent. At basic levels, this spell is kind of useless since it's so weak, but at the upper levels it actually gets pretty powerful, and if used with a purpose in mind, you can manipulate the vines to do pretty much whatever you want. Like strangling the opponent. Or Binding them by all four limbs while you cackle and monologue your plan. Up to you, brother.
Alright, so, in accordance with my promise-ish, I will now quickly describe what would have happened, had he picked this evolution.
First up, he would, sadly, not have been able to communicate with the goblins. No, the second he so much as transformed, he would have been mobbed into retreat. How was he supposed to know the mask he bore was an intercultural "STAY AWAY" sign?
If I survived long enough and got to evolve, it is highly likely he would have picked the first option and possibly, just maybe, have returned as a Gobling.
(Also I did reuse my idea, and I am also quite proud of the gobling name because it sounds nice)
Aw man, I've only done one and I've already got 1000+ words... I love writing this. It's so fun. When I came to the "time to come up with evolutions so interesting and good that it won't be obvious the actually good one will be the real choice", I was kinda stumped for a moment. The last one I did, I first went onto the WoW wiki to check how they wrote monster desc, and then I just wrote them up. It was only natural, y'know? But this one was special! If Moss Eating Larva was the fresh stage, and the Lightworm was the in-training stage, that meant this one would be the Rookie stage! So, this one had to be good.
I drew tiny sketches of all of them and then I just named them haphazardly lol
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
...As you can see, this is a lot. C rank is no joke!
So, in other words, our guy would get elemental magic of all the basic four elements, not counting water, as well as a bunch of mana-related skills, and he'd also get back the hivemind skills he had as a moss eating larva. If he had all the underlings a normal sorcerer of the red court would have had, he'd be a real challenge, making them all do his bidding with his stellar pheromone manipulation. Sadly, he had none of these.
Despite this, he would still be a challenge, what with all his new magic. It is... a lot of magic. All of these constitute just about... Let's see here. 2, 5, 9... yeah okay 16 spells. I am-,,, I am not writing that. Not... yet?
Yeah, it'd be spoilers if I wrote all of those spells! Definitely! I'm not-, I'm not a lazy Swedish potato, I swear!
Speaking of m appearance as a potato, I haven't ever described the Sorcerer of the Red Court! Well, in short, he would have looked damn cool. Long wings to keep his body afloat, his skull formed into what looks like a neato wizard's hat, red in colour, his abdomen elongated and thin, folded to resemble a long sorcerer's gown, four long pairs of legs poking out from inside the gown like the legs of a mosquito, ready to do magic. Man, he would have looked so cool. Apart from the wisp, this design is the one I was the proudest of. Cuz it looked cool.
Who the fuck would wanna be an ant anyways?
Oh, you're wondering what would have happened, had he picked this here evolution? Well, you see that skill up there, "Cold Heart"?
Y'know, before I wrote this story like this, I was wondering to myself, "how do I make my guy massacre the goblins?"
I have no idea why I had that idea, but it made sense at the time. I considered just not making him realize they were sentient until later, but this evolution has presented me with an even better idea.
The skill "Cold Heart" is passive, does not level, and causes the user to lose all remorse.
-In other words, our guy (his name is Johnny btw) would have had no reason to apologize, and, really, no reason to not attack them. So, after massacrating them, he'd emerge into the woods, and, well... let's just say it wouldn't take long for him to evolve into Red Ant King. Hum? Why not the Sorcerer? Well, the king is simply stronger, isn't he?
Right, right.
Onto the next one!!
I asked my friend (the one who didn't understand why it was a bad thing for the main character to kill a goblin(also I had apparently forgotten to tell them our guy is just a farmerboy in a weird situation and not an actual insect so sorry about that one Love)) and they wanted to name this guy simply Tank. So, I was all on board, "Red Ant Tank" here we gooooo
But I changed it, and now it's Red Ant Rhino which sounds better but Tank would have been cooler
Charge is an active skill that lets the user, well, charge at an enemy, which increases the weight, speed and strength of the user.
Dragon Scales is passive and increases the defence of the user, much like Chitin Armour.
Bite is active and increases the biting power.
Razor claws are the same but for the claws.
Fear and the pheromone ones are the ones you know from before, and so is Rallying cry. You can imagine what paralyzing bite and venom spit do, right?
All in all, this is an extremely battle focused creature, and specifically of the physical sort, where one has to get up close and personal to do shit. As lacklustre as the skills seem, the real power of this guy lies in his sheer stats, which are enormous, with Strength and Defence being the most important ones, with Magic and mana falling behind.
Appearence-wise, this guy is, well... Imagine an ant, crossed with a wolf and a dragon. In other words, he's about as large as a horse, maybe even larger, with his segmented body being compressed into one large one, with plates of red armour to defend him. I don't think my art skills could depict this guy in his full glory, really.
Yup, our very first dragon on the evolutions list! And probably one of our last ones, too. As much as I love dragons, having the main character become one is kind of overdone. The most powerful creature in the world doesn't always have to be a dragon, yanno?
So, what would have happened if our guy became a Red Ant Rhino? Well, since he didn't gain the "Cold Heart" skill, he won't go on a rampage, instead "escaping". After a few days of wandering the woods he will eventually come across a nearby kingdom. I say nearby, but it is really quite far away. Our guy is just very, very fast, and by abusing an exploit in the Charge skill, he was able to get there quite quickly, without being spotted by anyone until he came too close.
Well there, he was confronted by adventurers and knights alike, but by showing his submission, he was captured instead of killed, and as per his prediction, he was eventually granted some probation to become a steed, which he happily was.
A year or so goes by, and he eventually gains enough trust and levels to evolve yet again. He considers it for a while, unsure if he will be accepted as a wyrm (he'd rather not be an ant, like come on, plus he kinda likes being a steed), so in a show of wit, late at night, he enters the chamber of his personal rider, the captain of the royal guard (Red Ant Rhinos are rare in these areas, and finding one as placid and kind as our guy is rare) and gains his attention.
And there, right in his chambers, our guy evolves. By doing this, he succeeded in proving he was himself. Pretty clever, for an ant.
So, the kingdom gains a Lesser Wyrm, and with this new military might, they kind-of sort-of decide to go to war. During the war, our guy has to learn to kill humans, a harrowing experience he doesn't really recover from.
Several years go by, with the kingdom steadily expanding with the help of our guy. But when our guy is ready to evolve one more (Red Dragon (A), Greater Red Wyrm (A-)), he decides not to do so together with the kingdom. Once he enters his quarters, he evolves into a Red Dragon, and the kingdom, unable to stop him, can only watch as he flies into the distance.
Is this a good end? Is this what our main character wants? Who knows. Let's continue!
Ooooo, this one, this one. Who called it the Goblinoid? Whoever it is, you're right. This would've been a good way to return to humanity. Probably. I'm getting kind of exhausted from writing 3000 words for all this but I'm having a good time!!
Yeah, not much to see. But, there it is! The coveted Goblin Language!! Indeed, with this, he would be able to talk to goblins, whoever they are.
As far as appearance go, he's pretty much just a goblin, albeit an unusually tall one, red in colour, with some insectoid features (wings, antennae etc).
So, yeah, all and all, kind of a dead end. Sure, he could become a red ogre and all and probably evolve into something powerful further down the road, but, like... what's the fun? You came here for an insect and all. What, the insectoid? Isn't that, I dunno... boring?
Ah, anyhoo! What would have happened, had he become a red goblin insectoid?
Well, he'd have been attacked on sight, and goblins would bark orders at him to identify himself, since, well, what the fuck is a red goblin doing in their forest, in their village? He probably wouldn't be able to explain himself, but with his newfound ability to speak, he'd probably been able to at least explain a few things, gain their trust and all.
Maybe, after a while, he'd been able to integrate into their society as a warrior and all.
Huh? What's that? "What about the goblin girl?" Oh, that? Heh, well, um, see, here's the thing. He kind of put it off. For a good long while. Until he just couldn't bring himself to ay anything. As the days went by, as he grew closer to these goblins, learnt their names and became friends with them, his grief for the life he took only grew deeper. The man he killed went from a beast to a stranger to an acquaintance, and that enough.
But, after a few months, after deciding against evolving anytime soon, the goblin village is attacked by adventurers!
I... can't really describe what happens then, since I just really don't want to spoil anything. This is an AU and all that, but it still has elements of the true self in it.
So, uh, yeah! I'm kind of eh
Which of these did you like the best?
