Chapter 13

A/N: Please rate the story.

The creature that had traded itself for magic, woke up. Though, with whom the trade had been made, the creature did not know. Neither did it particularly care. What it did care about, was its magic, which it had back again.

Perhaps, had the creature known that the trade with whom the trade had been made, it would have given it a second thought. Or perhaps it would not have. But this second thought was not a possibility now. For the moth had made the trade with none other than its own past self. The dead being. And now the dead being, that had revived, had truly died.

The poisonous moth stretched its newfound body and gave its translucent wings a gentle shake. It felt relaxed and refreshed, for the first time in quite some time. It seemed to the creature that it was finally no longer crushed under the pressure of its past life and could live its life anew.

Now that the creature did not have any notifications waiting for it, it decided to go out of its shelter for the first time since its evolution. Thus, the creature broke the poisoned mud wall and walked out. The sight that greeted it was of the pitter-patter of the gentle rain in the darkness of the night.

The creature smiled. ‘I think this will be my favourite season from now on.’

To the being, that it had been in its last life, the rain had been a dreary and grey phenomenon that had brought with it a newfound coldness in already cold weather. But to this [Survivor], it had been this very rain that had been the cold shower that had eased the heat of the intense summer. It had been this rain too that had helped wash away the gloom of its ending lifespan.

This rain had been the reason it had been able to evolve and live.

The rest of the night the [Reincarnated] remained within the vicinity of its shelter, practising its flight. The bug had thought that it would take it a lot of time to get used to its wings. But that had not been the case. Perhaps the reason had been the [Flight] Skill that had started at Level 5. Or perhaps there had been some other reason. The creature did not know. And like for most other things, it did not care.

‘After the rain, flying is my favourite thing.’ It laughed to itself as it fluttered about without any purpose. The creature just enjoyed the moment of joy. ‘And flying in rain is the best of all!’

When it had enjoyed itself enough and finally decided to do something productive, it noticed a slight buzz around itself, or better to say, emanating from it. The bug frowned. ‘This would not do. Absolutely not. It’s practically screaming, “Hey, tasty meat here. Come and eat!”’

Thus, the white moth tried to nullify the sound as it flew but its face ended up having a rather intimate moment with the tree trunk. It tried again, but this time, instead of nullifying the sound, the bug tried to minimize it.

In the end, it took the poisonous moth quite some time but it did manage to soften the noise. However, it had to trade its speed for that and the maximum height it could fly to. ‘No matter. Being alive is worth more than flying higher or faster.’

Before in its last life when she had been alive, such a statement would have been sacrilege to her but now that it knew of death rather intimately, it had come to appreciate the value of life. Sighing again, it flew, searching for food.

Now that it had evolved into a moth and had its magic back, the creature had no intention to gorge on leaves anymore. Not that it had anything against leaves per se. But the Title [Hungry] had forced it to eat more leaves than it had ever to. Besides, its instincts too told it that it should find flower sap and bugs to feed on.

Searching, as it flew, it activated the Skill, [Sense] for the first time. And its antennas, almost instantly, caught the subtle yet sweet fragrance of a flower in the distance. The creature paused as it experienced the peculiar sensation. Feeling the scent, rather than smelling it, was something that that would take some time getting used to; it decided.

However, the creature shook off the odd sensation soon enough and flew in the direction of the flower nonetheless. The flower was pale blue in colour on a plant that had grown like a shrub. The petals of the flower almost reminded the creature of lily in the way they were shaped. As the moth neared the flower, the flower seemed to almost glow in the darkness of the night.

The bug gently landed on the flower’s petals and crawled in.

As it was tasting the sweet nectar of the flower, it felt another scent from its [Sense] skill. The duration of the Skill had yet to expire and the creature responded immediately, as it crawled out of the flower to look for the source of the scent.

The [Reincarnated] did not have to wait long before its eyes fell on an insect, which was much larger than itself, approaching the flower from the side. At this moment, the wind shifted and scent thickened. From this thick scent, the nature of the creature became clear and the moth’s heart began racing.

The owner of the scent was undoubtedly a predator; this, the moth’s instincts screamed at it. The [Survivor] backed away from the approaching predator at once. It did not even wait to get a clearer look at the predator. The moth had no intention of becoming insect chow, after all.

As its wings fluttered and kicked it off of the plant, a giant shadow seemed to pass from just where it had been a moment ago. The shadow had been at least thrice the size of the moth’s entire body and had been fast enough to cover the distance in an instant.

The moth’s heart raced and it turned around. And there it was, a giant creature that looked a lot like a praying mantis but wasn’t. It was at least 10 times as big as the moth and had a body that looked like it was made out of wood rather than flesh.

The moth beat its wings faster and faster. It didn’t care about the buzzing of its wings as it just tried to be faster than the creature pursuing it. And as it flew, out of the corner of its eye, it kept glancing at the seemingly wooden mantis. Then, much to its astonishment, and horror, the thing straightened up and revealed its wings.

‘That thing can fly!!’ The insect gaped. ‘I am so very dead!’

And as the moth had expected, but had hoped to be wrong about, the enormous predator flapped its wings and flew towards it. The mantis creature had decided that the moth was its prey and it did not want to let the moth escape its scythe-like clutches.

As the prey and the predator both flew, one chasing after the other, the moth’s tiny brain began to churn faster and faster. It eyed the creature again and noticed that the creature, due to oddly wooden body and large size, was slower than itself. Thus, without even waiting for a moment, it flew straight up. ‘If it is heavier and slower than me, then it can’t possibly fly high!’

The creature came to this conclusion due to its experiments earlier in the night when it had just been trying to dampen the buzzing sound of its flapping wings. At that time, although it had succeeded in decreasing the sound, it had had to fly both slower and at lower altitudes.

Thus, the moth kept on flying higher and higher and it soared towards the rain and the clouds. The mantis creature too kept on flying and tried to beat its wings faster. Though its heavy body proved to be a hindrance that it could not overcome.

A sigh of relief escaped the [Survivor] as the wooden mantis finally fell behind. With its breathing harsh and short, the little being landed on a branch. Though, it didn’t relax until after it had made sure that no surprises were hiding for it this time. It was only after it had calmed down did it begin to access the situation. ‘Could I have done things differently?’

The answer to that was no. It could not have.

While the bug had a lot of Skills, most were utility-based or suitable for traps. Not something that it could have used to confront the creature that had been hunting it. And then there had been the nature of its hunter itself. That mantis creature seemed to have had a wooden body, which implied that it would have been much tougher to handle.

Though that was just its conjecture.

Lastly, even though the moth had gained magic, it hadn’t gained spells. It had gained Skills. Both of which were utility based in nature and were the basis on which magic was cast and did not cast magic themselves.

This encounter thus taught one lesson to the moth and that lesson was that it had to begin experimenting with its magic as soon as possible if it wanted to survive in this world. After all, it had gained magic after much sacrifice and it was not just for show.

The creature then sighed. For even though it had decided to practice magic, it still needed to eat. The only thing that it had eaten since its birth had been its own cocoon. And while it had been delicious and rewarding, it hadn’t been very substantial.

Thus, beating its wings, the moth again became airborne.

It flew across the forest as it kept its senses at high alert. It would have preferred to just keep the Skill [Sense] active but that Skill was limited by the moth’s Skill Level. Thus, the moth could only use the Skill for 1 minute at Level 1. ‘I have to be very judicious with its use.’

Yet, despite its caution, the creature couldn’t stop enjoying the wind beneath its wings and the rustling of the hairs on its body. It was exhilarating for the bug. Hence, it flew and flew until its body reminded it, with a slight burn in its stomach that it needed to eat. Grimacing, the moth began actively looking for small bugs to hunt.

It was after quite some time that the moth zoomed in on a spider trying to build its web. The 8-legged creature was small, almost a quarter of the moth’s own size and a dull brown in colour. The colour of the bug made it smile.

If the bug had to rely on a dull colour to hide its presence then it should not be incredibly dangerous. Because the moth knew, from her knowledge, that anything that was brightly coloured within the wild, had to be either extremely poisonous or venomous.

Yet, the moth decided to err on the side of caution and not to engage the spider in confrontation. Because that was the way of the wild and only those that followed it, survived. Unless, of course, one was strong enough. If one was strong enough, then just what was wild and it rules? They were mere guidelines meant to be bent as per one’s will.

Focusing on the task at hand, the creature landed in a hidden location and waiting patiently as it began observing its prey.

Since the creature had no information regarding the spider or the guide to help it hunt the spider, it decided to first remedy the first flaw and began gathering information. The creature observed the spider for about an hour and saw as a fly was caught in the spider’s web.

The moth then tilted its head in confusion as the spider just waited as the fly continued to struggle. It was only after that the fly had stopped struggling did the spider move. ‘Ah. So, it was waiting for the fly to tire itself out.’

The moth watched as the spider neared the fly and stopped for a moment as it seemed to be observing the creature trapped within its web. ‘Eh? Is it blind or something?’

It was only after the spider had carefully observed the spider that it closed in and sank its fang into the flesh of the fly. ’And there is poison, as expected.’

Now that the moth felt it knew the modus operandi of the spider, it was ready to begin its own hunt. Though the first thing it needed was a plan. Something which was surprisingly hard to come up with. As moments after moments continued to pass, plans after plans passed through the creature’s mind.

The first plan that it decided to act on used the moth’s ability to create venom and its ability to fly. For this plan, the creature needed to cover a leaf with venom before putting that leaf on the spider when it was away from its net. Thus, causing the spider to be poisoned.

Even though it was not the best plan, it was the first that the creature thought might work. Hence, it decided to employ it. The moth thus found a large enough lead and covered it in the venom secreted from its body.

But it was there that it ran into its biggest hurdle. A hurdle that it could not cross over. And this hurdle was that the creature was a moth. It did not have fingers, let alone opposable thumbs to hold onto anything. The creature dumbly stared at its thin limbs that seemed like mere lines. And then stared at the venom covered leaf. And then it scowled. ‘Stupid bitch gave me a wrong set of memories.’

With its first plan a bust, it abandoned the leaf and began thinking of another method. This time, it took the moth quite some time to come up with a plan. And when it did, it decided to directly employ it.

Thus, the creature began searching for moss. Given that it was the rainy season, and it had been raining nonstop since the moth had woken up, it was not difficult to find the green encroacher. The moth then bit off a small portion of the moss and laced it with its own venom before rolling it in a roughly cylindrical shape with the use of its mouth.

After all, the creature couldn’t even use its limbs to perform such a simple action.

With the moss role in its mouth, the creature flew back to the spider and let the roll fall into the web. The vibrations caused by the roll were short-lived and while they made the spider pay attention, they did not cause the spider to move.

Not that the moth had expected the spider to move from just this much. This moss roll was just a distraction and even though the moth had laced it with venom, the creature did not expect the spider to take a bite of the moss.

The moth then found a stone small enough to lift while big enough to hurt the spider. It was not something difficult given that the spider was one third the size of the moth. With its weapon set, the moth flew back to the spider web. Reaching the moss roll, the moth carefully landed so as not to be entangled into the web before gently flapping its wings to generate a slight wind current right over the moss roll.

The wind current along with the moss roll created a simulation of a creature trapped within the web. The moth then increased the wind current to mimic a panicked bug before gradually decreasing the wind to imitate an increasingly tired creature. And then it finally stopped the wind.

The spider had twitched the moment the first wind current had hit the web and had been attentive ever since. It was only after the web stopped moving completely that the spider made its move. The fanged creature carefully made its way towards moss roll and then paused.

The shape of the moss roll seemed to make little sense to the creature as the spider twitched its front legs in confusion.

It was while the spider was focusing on the moss that the white moth landed from above and spat out the stone at directly at the spider. The stone hit the spider and unbalanced it, causing the fanged creature to fall off.

The creature landed with a thud and seemed disoriented. The moth used that time to fly down to the spider and bit the back of its head and flew off. It flew higher and higher and also towards a flat piece of rock as the spider struggled and thrashed and tried to bite the moth.

But the moth had been holding it from its back and the spider’s limbs and fangs didn’t reach the above its body. It was not long after that the moth threw the spider at the rock.

Splat!

The white moth hovered in the air for a moment before flying down to where the spider had landed. It was not a pretty sight. The spider’s chitin had cracked and from those cracks, blood leaked out. All of the 8 beady eyes of the spider had popped like balloons, splashing the flesh and liquid within onto the spider’s body. The limbs of the insects had broken off, leaving behind 8 differently sized stumps.

The moth made a face in distaste yet it sighed in relief. ‘That had been hectic.’

A small frown morphed on its face. The poisonous moth had not received even a single Level from the spider. ‘This spider is not much of a predator.’

‘Tch. Hunting it is almost useless.’ The creature’s face twisted in distaste as it landed near the dead spider and the delicious scent of fresh meat hit its antennas. The bug crawled closer.

The thus released scent tantalized its antennas but it didn’t dare touch the spider now. Feasting itself on the spider now would leave its open to attack, thus it chose to take the meat back with it, to eat it in peace.

But when the creature bit into the carcass to lift it, the cracks on the chitin expanded and even more, blood began leaking out. This carcass, in such a mangled state, could not be transported.

It grimaced and decided to eat it there itself but before that, the creature needed to make some preparations. As such, it began to dig then and there. It dug as fast as it could, for it did not want the scent of raw flesh to attract predators.

Once the hole had been dug, the bug dragged the spider carcass in. After covering up the entrance with the venom covered leaf -that it had tried to use for its plan- it dug into the flesh.

The meat tasted just as delicious as its scent had promised and even though there wasn’t much, it had been filling. There had even been a bit of spice to some parts of the flesh. They had been a nice little surprise and its favourite part even.

At this moment, the White Moon Moth didn’t realise it, but it had been able to gorge on the flesh of a spider and even found delicious because of a single reason. And that reason was that it no longer had mortal sensibility, taste and preference. It was just another thing that the moth immortal had traded for magic.

As the moth finished the last morsel of meat and fluttered its wings to take off, a pain hit it out of nowhere.

It was like the bug had been hit with a blunt weapon, all over its body and then it had been hit again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.

It was bad. Much worse than what it had been experiencing with the plant poison. Whereas the plant poison had been like a single bolt of pain, this experience felt to the creature like that single bolt of pain had begun racing all over it. And that many more such bolts, all had begun doing the same over its body again and again. And again.

The pain lasted for quite some time. And by the time it was finally over, the moth had been left gasping for its breath. It tried to take a few deep breaths but its body didn’t understand that instruction. Instead, its body exhaled the last puffs of air.

The creature panicked and didn’t even dare breath. Yet its body demanded air, for it was gasping. Under the conflicting desires of body and mind, the creature lost and involuntary breathed. Fortunately for it, by this time it was able to take control of its body and breathed deeply.

‘How did I get poisoned?’ The creature was left puzzled as it gasped. It had avoided the area near the poison sack entirely since it didn’t know if it could identify the organ. ‘What did I miss? Was its poison sac somewhere else and I ate it accidentally?’

What the creature had already forgotten about was that all the eight eyes of the spider had popped and scattered their remains over the carcass. If none of he eyes remained intact after the fall, then how could the venom glad remain intact? The venom gland of the spider had thus burst open and the gland’s content had thus escaped into the spider’s head, while a small amount had even dripped down into the flesh of the rest of the body.

The unwitting moth had even noticed the poison but hadn’t paid it any mind, for it had considered the venom laced meant, spicy.

The thing that had saved the moth’s life had been its decision to not consume the head of the corpse. For if the white moth had eaten the head then, with the amount of venom present in that body part, the effects of venom would have stacked. If that had happened, then despite its [Poison Resistance], the creature would have died.

And now, even though the creature had escaped with its life, the experience had exhausted the bug and it opened its status to check its HP. It wanted to see if the creature’s venom had been countered by its own [Poison Resistance]. It hadn’t been. The creature had received a total of 6 points of HP damage over the past 3 minutes and the bug didn’t know if the effects of the poison had ended or not.

The creature hurriedly flapped its wings and it flew back to its hideout. As it flew, over the course of the next 5 minutes, the moth continued to receive 2 points of HP damage per minute and had lost a total of 16 HP.

It was in the 9^th minute though, where the effect of its [Poison Resistance] Skill ended and it began receiving the unmitigated damage from the spider’s venom. A total of 10 HP damage per minute.

Though, it only received that damage for 2 minutes. This implied that either the spider had been a Tier 1 immortal and had both the skills [Venom Creation] and [Poison Resistance] at Level 10 or that it had been a recently evolved Tier 2 creature that had yet to Level up.

But considering how easily the creature had been handled, despite the poison affliction, the moth was biased towards it being a Tier 1 creature. Then there was the fact that the white moth had received just 3 Levels from the kill and the creature was inclined to believe that if it had killed a creature that had evolved twice, it would have received at least a dozen Levels.

When it finally landed within its shelter, the creature closed its eyes in exhaustion. ‘Tomorrow.’

Exhaustion, both from the poison and the loss of HP, demanded sleep. ‘From tomorrow I will start experimenting with magic.’

A demand, that the creature satisfied.

-X-

Within a desolate desert, inside a dilapidated shop, on a simple chair, a youth seemingly slept.

-X-

Spoiler: Spoiler