Her Knight Crabby

A man named Yunji

The sunlight gleamed its last over the city. For Yunji it was another uneventful day. A full day of tumultuously carrying rice sacks and minimal earnings.

23 years old and no proper work. Being a college grad doesn't really help either. Five years of learning (not) was just a waste of precious time if you can't guarantee a job. Getting hired was practically a matter of having either beauty, brains, talent, strings, or moolah.

And having none of those basically guarantees you a life of hard labor.

Arriving home (if that is what you call a tatami size plyboard box with an old corrugated aluminum roof, then yes a home), Yunji prepares his supper, instant ramen. With how tiring work is, cooking rice would take too much time he'd fall asleep waiting.

Winter was on its way and the chilly winds rose from the river banks. Yunji wrapped himself with his petty excuse for a blanket and sat by the stove. Steam wafted from the small pot as the water slowly came to a boil. The steam slowly gathered above the stove in a swirling motion, mixing itself with rising smoke. The chilly breeze slowly came to halt. Minute amounts of vapor rose from the cold earth but Yunji didn't notice. Mist formed around him as he placed the contents of the instant ramen pack. His breath became visible in the air forcing him to a pause.

As the mist gradually subsides, he finds himself facing a 12-year-old girl with lilac hair and amethyst eyes. Coupled with the fact that his angle of sight was very low, forcing himself to look up as he stared at the girl, something was definitely wrong.

"Ah!" Startled with the sudden appearance of a girl, Yunji stumbled backward. Noticing his strange movements as he moved back, he glanced down and saw or rather didn't see anything that resembled his legs. What he saw were pairs of exoskeletal legs. Trembling, he tried to touch them only to find crab claws reaching down. In disbelief and horror, he started touching himself all over and was shocked upon arriving at a conclusion. It seems like he needs to start getting used to as a crabby for the rest of his life.

Taking a deep breath (which he could, albeit a lot different from using lungs) to calm himself down. He began looking around and found several pressing issues.

One, he wasn't home anymore. Although it wasn't much worse than his man box, it wasn't any better. An old thatched hut slapped by time, termites, spiders, and a lot of dust. This was probably his "new" home. 'Judging from the tattered clothes of the girl, she must be the owner of this hut.'

Two, concluding from his angle of view, his size seems to be large compared to the crabs you see on the market. His line of sight was at the knee level of the little girl. This size was much larger than the coconut crab. Coconut crabs were the one of largest crabs back on earth and they span a length of 1 meter from one leg to the other. Yunji on the other hand was larger than this. His shell alone was about a meter wide from edge to edge and his legs were the size of a toddler's arm.

The third and most important was he wasn't on Earth anymore. After all, Earth doesn't have any glowing doodles pulsating with unfamiliar power, and he was standing on top of it.

As Yunji was lost in his thoughts again. The girl muttered strange words and held her palm facing Yunji. Her palm lit up in bright blue energy. The girl frowned as if in pain. Beads of sweat dripped off the girl's forehead as a crab tattoo slowly etched itself at the back of her hand.

Yunji wasn't spared either as he wriggled in agony from an excruciating headache.

The light faded and so did the pain. Both of them fell unconscious.

****

The soft rays of light filtered through holes and gaps of the window cover. Consciousness entered Yunji's eyes and morning greeted him. Sunlight wasn't the only thing that greeted him. In front of his eyes was a panel of blue light.

[STATUS]

NAME: NONE

SPECIES: BRACHYURA

LVL 0

EXP 0/20

HP 100/100

MP 20/20

SP 40/40

STRENGTH 15

AGILITY 7

VITALITY 6

ENDURANCE 20

INTELLIGENCE 8

WISDOM 5

[SKILLS]

EXOSKELETON: A hard shell protects you from cutting damage.

PIERCING CLAW: A piercing attack that doubles damage on a single target. 5SP.

SERRATED EDGE: Coat your claws with mana. Halves the healing speed of the wounds caused by your claws. The enemy feels twice the pain as normal. 5MP/sec.

[QUEST]

NONE

[MISSION]

1. Reach LVL5 in a week

Rewards: Bio Points System Unlock

Penalty: DEATH

2. Evolve in a month

Rewards: Skill Tree Unlock

Penalty: DEATH

The color drained from Yunji's face after he read the missions tab.