Chapter 19

The monsoon had come to an end. The last rain of the season had been bid farewell by the same creatures that had welcomed it. And much like a millipede with its numerous limbs, where a new pair of legs arrived no sooner than the older ones had left, autumn’s footsteps had already begun echoing in the forest.

The temperature had begun to fall with each passing day and the cool breezes of the summer had changed into chilly winds that left shivers in the wake of their passing. Yet the temperature remained just there. It left the various creatures a bit chilly but not shivering; the shivering was the work of the passing winds.

Trees had started to sleep and leaves had begun to change colours. From the deep green of the vibrant vitality to the orange of the setting sun and to the yellow of the dead desert sand, the colours had begun to shift. And when the shift completed, so did the lifecycle of the leaves and they fell.

The fleeting winds took the leaves beyond their trees, to distances far and close and wide and narrow, littering the forest floor with the colours abound.

Of course, all of this mattered not to the creature that had been cooped up within its tiny little hideout and had ventured out only when it had needed sustenance for the past 2 weeks. It did not even matter to the creature that it was now starting the 7^th month of its rebirth. All that mattered to this creature was that it remained safe.

But safety was one thing that had been denied to the immortals by their very nature. They couldn’t remain safe within their hidden homes and if the immortals did dare to do so then their lifespans, extended as they may be, would end long before could evolve.

An immortal’s nature was of struggle and survival and for an immortal to turn away from it, was turning away from life itself. Immortals could grow only in strife and adversity. They weren’t like mortals that grew even in peace and tranquillity as they refined themselves. For immortals were immortals and mortals were mortals.

Thus, for one to follow the path of the other was folly. And the result of this folly was nothing else but death.

0.0

The creature gazed at the world outside its hideout, as leaves were carried away by the whistling winds to the destinations unknown.

It had been keeping to itself for a long time and had watched as its lifespan had decreased with each passing day. From 240 days, the creature’s lifespan had come down to 151. And even though it had wanted to go out and start levelling again but the memory of the last encounter had stopped it each time.

It was not the scorpion that had been haunting the creature, nor had it been the dead spider that had been in the scorpion’s pincers. Instead, it had been its own insistence at hunting the scorpion that still continued to fill it with terror.

This truth, the creature had a hard time digesting. It was well acquainted with nature as an immortal but this time, but this time, it had been driven home like nothing before. Faced with such a realization, the creature had been stuck between the need to keep itself safe from itself and the desire to increase its power.

The need had won over the desire, in the end. Though, not for long. With each decrease in its lifespan, the desire had asserted itself with more and more strength while the need had given in, little by little, with each passing day. Thus, the creature stared at the world outside its hideout. And the world stared back. Daring it. Asking it. Would it watch as it died a slow death? Or would it step out and maybe live to see another day?

Till this day, the creature hadn’t dared to choose the latter option but, on this day, the desire had won over the need and the creature accepted the dare. It stepped out of its hideout, not only to secure its food for the day but to also increase its Level and survive.

0.0

Spreading its wings, the moth flew towards the spider hunting ground. For even though it had decided to hunt to increase its Level, it still had to hunt the spiders to Level up its [Poison Resistance]. After all, its venom had always been its strongest weapon and the [Survivor] needed to keep it sharp. But to keep it sharp, the creature had to do this. It had to poison itself. It needed to make this sacrifice if it wanted to live.

Thus, it tried to kill the spiders with the same strategy that it had employed before. It would silently land on the branch from which spiders would be hanging. The moth would then crawl towards its prey before creating a puddle of venom, which it would then slowly guide down the thread.

It was usually at this point that its prey either escaped or died. Today, though, its prey hadn’t been able to escape and died.

Ting.

[You have levelled Up! The level up bonus of +2 HP and +2 MP granted.]

The moth grimaced. This was the creature’s second Level up since the incident with the scorpions.

After it had dragged the spider in the hole, that it had now dubbed as the eating hole, the moth gorged on the spider flesh and after carefully removing the poisoned flesh, it carefully consumed a bit of the poisoned flesh.

After the bolts of pain subsided, the [Reincarnated] remained within the safety of the earth and rested until it felt all the effects of the poison fade away. Even then, the creature remained within the hole for some time more. I had wanted to be absolutely sure.

But for immortals, there existed no absolute surety. They even had no surety that they would live to see another day. But the creature cared not for this and remained as cautious as ever. And only when it was sure, that it had control over its impulses, did the creature crawl out of the hole. It slowly flew as it carefully made its way deeper into the territory of spiders. And while it did that, it tried to be as quiet as it could.

As it moved deeper and deeper into the spider territory, it kept its eyes sharp and twitched at every scent that its antennas picked up. The moth was also very careful of the fact that this supposedly was spider territory and thus was filled with spider-nets that it could probably not see.

As it flew, its antenna detected a scent and cautiously flew towards it, only to find a rather small spider, barely a sixth of a mortal’s finger; thus, half its own size. Though what caught its attention was its bright colours of red and blue that glistened brightly against the rest of the greens and the browns.

The moth flew closer towards this new spider and the subtle scent thickened. And as this new and much deeper scent hit its antennas, the flying creature stopped dead in its tracks and its heart began racing. For this new scent was unlike anything that the moth had encountered before. Even the scorpions had nothing on this tiny spider.

This brilliantly coloured spider’s scent was alarmingly predatory and bitter enough to make the moth gag, sending the bug’s senses haywire. It was as if the moth was being drowned in a bitter liquid that wanted to devour the bug, while the spider watched the moth’s suffering in glee.

The flying bug’s heart stuttered and its scalp tingled as its fur like hair stood on their ends. The creature immediately retreated a bit and took in a deep breath to settle itself. One breath was not enough and the creature breathed in deeply again.

‘I can fly. It can’t.’ The moth reminded itself as it tried to calm its beating heart. ‘I’ll just watch. Merely observe. I need to know what exists here. I dare not hunt it.’

Thus, the white-furred moth carefully made its way towards the branch on which the spider was hanging. Though the moment the moth landed on the branch, it saw the spider twitch for a moment before the fanged creature continued on with its net building.

Crawling as it went, the moth made its way towards the point from where the spider was hanging, so as to make as fewer vibrations as possible. However, as soon as it neared the spider, the spider stopped moving. The spider stayed still for a moment before the fanged creature began racing towards the moth.

The moth’s heart dropped as it saw the spider race towards it like a predator hunting its prey and it flapped its wings rapidly to take off into the air. However, barely had it gotten off the branch that the spider shot a thread from its back that landed on one of the moth’s legs.

The moth’s heart stopped and its scalp went numb in fear. It pulled on its stuck limb but the limb pulled it back instead, under the power of the rapidly approaching spider. The moth pulled and pulled but the limb continued to pull back.

By now the spider was almost upon the moth. But the moth could not let this dangerous spider reach it, if it wanted to live. And the moth wanted to live real bad. Hence the [Survivor] flew off of the branch and started beating its wings mid-air.

As the moth regained its bearings, it felt something hit another of its limbs and get stuck. And then it felt another pull. With a sinking feeling in its heart, the moth turned around and saw the spider had shot another thread at the moth which had landed on another of its limbs. The spider had thrown in a fishing line and now seemed to be rolling it in.

‘Why do I have so many limbs?!!’

It flapped its wings, faster and faster, trying to outdo the spider in strength but it felt itself failing and slowly being dragged towards the spider! ‘This will not happen! This will absolutely not happen!’

At that moment, the creature felt intense pain from its limbs and the pull disappeared. The flying bug did not waste even a single moment and flew off without so much as a second glance. It flew higher and higher, away from the spider that had nearly become its death. With its heart almost leaping out of its mouth, it flew until it reached the canopy of the trees before it dared to stop its ascent and turn back to look at the spider.

But at the height that it was, it saw nothing.

Ting.

[Skill [Flight Lv.5] has levelled up [Flight Lv.6]. Your speed and manoeuvrability have increased.]

It dismissed the window without even looking at it. It wasn’t a Level up notification and that was all it cared about when it came to notifications. The moth hesitated for a moment before it landed on a branch. But the moment it touched the branch it imbalanced and fell off. Mid-air, the moth hastily beat its wings and straightened itself before looking down at its body.

Before, where there had been 2 limbs, now there was nothing but stumps. And this had been why the pull had suddenly stopped and the creature had been able to escape. Its limbs had been torn off of its body. At least, this way, the creature’s earlier to have lesser limbs was fulfilled.

The moth winced as the pain made itself known once again but did not bother much with the wounds. After all, they weren’t anything that a good use of [Moulting] couldn’t fix.

With its heart still racing from the encounter, the creature flew back as fast as it could. It had had enough adventuring for the day. Finally, as it flew out of the spider territory, it let out a sigh of relief. It was safe. ‘But for how long?’

This was the Wild. And in the Wild only the strong prevailed. And one did not become strong by hiding in their little hidey-hole, afraid and cowering. They conquered their fears. The creature hesitated. It was not strong. It was not brave. It did not conquer its fear. It was cautious. It was ambusher. I was a trapper. And it was afraid. It was terrified. It had lost two of its legs.

Thus, the creature silently crawled back into its hideout to heal. ‘Moulting.’

Ting.

[Skill [Moulting Lv.3] has levelled up to [Moulting Lv.4]. The time required for the skill has been reduced by 4 minutes. Total time required: 5 Hours and 48 Minutes.]

0.0

The creature woke up, wrapped in its own shed skin. And as usual, this shed skin broke apart the moment the creature stretched its body.

As the creature crawled out of the shed exuviate, its thoughts raced back to the last night jaunt and it shuddered. It did not want a repeat of that experience again. But as it looked at its Status, the decreased HP and the declining lifespan caused its face to twist in distaste. ‘Tch.’

Crawling out of the hideout, the moth again flew towards the spider hunting ground and began the daily ritual of hunting, eating and screaming in pain to Level up the [Poison Resistance]. As the creature finished trembling from the jolts of pain, it reminded itself why it needed a stronger venom. It couldn’t forget the scorpion that had delayed the venom for so long that the moth had thought it immune.

And it remembered the scorpion that it had seen as a caterpillar, who had apparently been immune to its venom. That scorpion had most likely lived near the moth’s old habitat. The scorpion that had shrugged off its venom like it had been oriental spice.

The moth needed stronger stuff. But for that, it needed its [Poison Resistance] at Level 10, its current Level cap. It had to get there if it wanted to survive in this forest. The creature sighed.

With each passing day, it was taking the moth more and more failed hunts to kill a spider. Just tonight, it had taken the bug a total of 6 encounters before it had been able to successfully hunt a spider. It had almost run out of all its easy prey. The ones that remained now, it seemed, were the high levelled ones; even when they were at the same Tier as the moth, Tier 1.

The creature grimaced and dropped that line of thought. This was the wild. And even if the creature did not know it comprehensively in words, it knew inherently in its subconsciousness that there was nothing easy in the wild.

Beating its wings, the moth took to the air and thought about what to do for the rest of the day. It could, very obviously, not venture deeper into the spider territory. That would just get it killed.

But if it wanted to Level up faster, the moth needed to find better prey that was not all that dangerous. Yet, the only creature that had given the moth a good result had been the scorpion and the creature was in the mood to have a repeat of that.

As it thought, it flew around. Meanwhile, without the [Survivor] noticing it, a subtle scent seemed to envelop it and the moth unconsciously changed its direction towards the clearing where it had noticed the flower that had almost seemed to glow within the darkness of the night. Reaching the clearing, it found the flower easily enough and landed without much difficulty.

The creature found itself strangely attracted to this flower and sat there, mystified.

The flower was incredibly simple. It didn’t have many petals, but one. The white petal seemed to flare up from the stalk of the plant like the hood of a cobra. And where the hood curved down, it almost seemed to protect the single strand of the blood-red stamen that carried the flower’s pollen.

Since the flower seemed to remind the moth of snakes, the creature decided to name it as Serpent’s Protection.

As the moth continued to stare at the flower and remained mystified by the almost glow of the plant, it decided to observe the flower under the effect of [Sense Essence]. ‘It’s not like I have to save my mana for something else anyway.’

The world seemed to dull as the essences of the world manifested in their Vessels. Each and everything in the world contained its own essence. The animals, the beasts, the mortals, the immortals, the trees, the plants, the grass, the water, the earth and even each individual smote of dust contained its own essence.

As the creature sensed the essences, its own essence stood out to the creature as the only one that seemed to have some form. The rest were merely blobs of vapour, inconsistent but undeniably there. The next essence to be sensed somewhat clearly was the essence of the flower.

Even though the flower’s essence seemed more tangible than the rest, it still remained a blob of vapour. The colour of this essence, however, that seemed to remind the creature of something. The mystified creature gazed upon the flower’s essence for quite some time as it tried to remember where it had seen the colour before.

The colour of the essence was not particularly eye-catching. It was merely white. Though it was this particular shade of white that the creature had seen before. As the creature remained perplexed, it suddenly remembered. ‘This is the colour of the white moon!’

Just to confirm, the creature looked up. And sure enough, in the dull world, the essence of the white moon was visible. This essence of the white moon was white as the white moon of the night. And it was just a vapoury as everything else. This white essence of the white moon matched the essence of the flower to the exact shade.

As the creature stared at both the essences a bit dumbfoundedly, its attention zeroed in on an essence that was incredibly fast-moving. This essence was brown like the wood and the seemed to be moving through the flight.

The moth was reminded of the reason it had not come to this clearing in so long and its heart began to race. Without even bothering to end the Skill, the bug took flight and instead of racing back home, it flew up towards the sky as it cursed itself. ‘How did I forget! How could I forget! This is not something that I should forget!!’

Indeed, the moth was right. This was not something that one forgets willingly.

The [Survivor] flew higher and higher and it was only when it had reached the canopy, that it dared to turn and look back. The bug didn’t have to search for long as it caught the movement of the brown essence and found the essence to be buzzing around its previous location.

The moth cancelled the Skill, [Sense Essence] and cautiously descended to get a closer look at the buzzing being. And sure enough, as it had thought, it was the same Wooden Mantis that had chased it off from this clearing last time. ‘Idiot! Am I courting death or what?! How could I have forgotten that beast?’

The truth of the matter was, that the creature hadn’t forgotten about the flower or the beast. It had remembered them very well. And this was the reason that it had noticed the movement of the Mantis’s essence, even though it had been incredibly faint.

Yet, when it had neared the clearing, it had not cared about what it had known and the reason for such behaviour had been the flower. The scent of the flower had overcome the instincts of the moth to drawn it within the clearing. And after it had reached the flower, the moth had been too mystified to think about anything else but the flower.

But the creature did not know any of this. It did not know it had been charmed by the flower. All the moth knew was that it was strangely attracted to the rather simple flower.

The creature grimaced and flew back to its hideout, as it activated the Skill [Sense Essence] at regular intervals. Initially, it had been in too much of a hurry to dismiss the Skill, but with each passing moment, the moth had realised its utility and usefulness.

After all, the Skill only consumed mana at the rate of five times the Skill Level per minute. And as the Skill was at Level 1 while the moth had 116 mana, the creature could keep the Skill active for 23 minutes. As opposed to [Sense], which at Level 2 was only active for 2 minutes.

Entering its hideout at last the creature almost laughed out loud. ‘Using her most prized ability for merely sensing? Tch. She would roll in her grave if she knew.’

-X-

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

-X-