Chapter 7

The former sorceress woke up as usual, with an intense pressure building up in its backside. With nothing more important to do, the creature completed its morning ritual and made its way to the poisonous tree, to try and level up the only Skill that had yet to increase.

Its Skill [Poison Resistance] had been stuck at Level 5 despite its best efforts. And had the Skill not been its most levelled one, the creature would have already gone mad with impatience and frustration.

The creature pursed its lips. There had been another thing that had been bothering it and that had been the lack of snails in the area. Since its hunt last week, the tiny creature had yet to find any more snails to hunt and raise its Level.

As a result, the creature had gained only 4 more Levels in the last 7 days and barely managed to reach Level 65. This proved one thing to the caterpillar; the Level ups due to its Title [Hungry] were decreasing with each Level and the Title could not be relied upon.

Though, this realisation was not particularly new or helpful. The bug had already had an inkling towards it for quite some time. Yet, their confirmation was something that pounded its heart nonetheless as, with each passing day, the creature’s rather short lifespan decreased. And with the passage of another week, its life span had decreased to just 34 days. Almost one-third of its entire lifespan.

Thus, after it had gone through the process of consuming poisoned leaves, and the aftereffects of convulsions and spasms, it did not go back to its original tree to eat. Rather it began searching for snails. It crawled up and down a lot of trees before it finally found what it was looking for. And instead of attacking the shelled creature, the bug laid its trap of venom pit and waited.

Nothing much happened as it waited and munched on the leaves. The [Reincarnated] kept its senses taught and when the snail finally made its way towards the caterpillar, the little being almost jumped in joy.

What followed after had been a death and a few Level ups. And when the caterpillar returned home for the night, it had levelled up to [Level: 70] due to the 5 Levels from the snail. And even though the tiny being had wanted to hunt more of the shelled creatures, it had been unable to find them.

The [Survivor] shook its head to clear it of the useless thoughts and made its way to the tree with bitter leaves once again for the nightly dose of poison. Having eaten more than enough of the poisoned leaves, the creature crawled dow-

Ting.

[Skill [Crawl Lv.3] had levelled up to [Crawl Lv.4]. Your crawl speed has been increased.]

It dismissed the screen and continued on its way down. Reaching the ground, it waited for the poison to hit it. And it continued to wait. It really was taking a little too long. ‘Have it become immune to the poi-‘

The convolutions hit it then. Though they were weak and lasted just for a few moments. It grinned through the pain and the gasps; all its hard work had finally begun to pay off.

Still grinning, it reached its hideout and began to widen it; it was something that it had to do daily these days. After all, after doing nothing but eating, eating and then some more eating, the creature had increased its size, though it remained tiny nonetheless. Yet this marginal increase in size forced it to increase its hideout at a regular interval.

After the hideout had been hollowed out enough, the creature settled down in the tiny hole, which had been its shelter here since soon after it had been reborn. Smiling it decided to use [Survive] instead of [Moulting]. After all, even after all these days [Moulting] was leading at Level 3 while [Survive] trailed at Level 1. ‘Survive.’

Ting.

[Skill [Survive Lv.1] has levelled up to [Survive Lv.2]. HP Limit has been increased by 1. Current Time Limit: 1 minute. Current HP Limit: 2 HP]

It checked its Status and its HP had been reduced by a solid 40 points, leaving it at [HP: 35/75]. The tiny bug smiled. For some reason, the ever-increasing value of the sacrifice gave it a strange sense of accomplishment. Even the Level up notifications and the value of its HP did not give it such joy.

Perhaps its was the fact that it could afford to lose such huge amounts of HP that gave it the giddy feeling. After all, only a few months earlier, such a loss of HP would have left it gasping in horror and awaiting death.

With a content smile, the creature dismissed the notification and went to sleep.

0.0

The former sorceress scowled as it fruitlessly crawled up and down another tree, looking for the ever so elusive snails. It had been its 7^th tree just today and it had yet to find a single snail.

Not that it had had much success in the past 2 weeks. The single snail that it had hunted almost 2 weeks ago had been the only snail that it found and since then, it had not found even a single one. Thus, in the 14 days since, the bug had only gained 5 Levels to reach Level 75.

5 Levels in 14 days.

And it had just 20 days left to gain 25 more Levels.

The creature had begun to lose its already fragile mind.

Never had the little caterpillar felt so desperate in its life. Not even when it had been hiding from the bird, soon after it had been reborn. At least at the time, the creature could have done something. And it had done something. But at this time, the bug could do absolute jack s***.

The desperation added fuel to the fire that was the war going on within its mind. It tilted the war in favour of the one rather than the other but the creature remained unbothered. It remained ignorant. In its ignorance, it continued to search.

But by the time the sunlight began to dim, the creature had to stop its search and return if it wanted to be in its hideout by the time darkness consumed the light and night arose anew.

Arriving at the hideout, the creature expanded its tiny hole to fit its ever-increasing size. Just because it had been searching for the snails, doesn’t mean it had stopped eating. After all, the bug had the Title [Hungry]. It could never stop eating.

0.0

A mere 14 were left of its lifespan.

76 days had passed by since its rebirth.

And the former sorceress had begun to stare at death once again.

It had a mere 14 days left to earn 23 more levels as it had gained merely 2 levels in the last week. With each day that passed, the creature grew more and more desperate. The more desperate it grew, the more its mind frayed and the more the war tilted.

And now that the bug had reached the twilight days of its lifespan, its body had begun to show its age. It had slowed down, despite the increase in Levels and Skill Levels. It took more energy for the [Survivor] to move while tiring it out quicker.

It had been sleeping a lot more too. And now that the weather had begun to change as it grew colder, the creature felt the shackles of age and death tightening even more.

0.0

The former sorceress stared at the overcast sky. It stared at the dark clouds. And it slowly crawled down another tree. Another day, another tree, another failure.

Just 10 days were left now. 10 days to live and 10 days to die. It sighed and began its journey to return to its hideo-

Ting.

[Skill [Crawl Lv.4] has levelled up to [Crawl Lv.5]. Crawling speed has been increased.]

The caterpillar sighed. Even the Skill Level up notifications, that had been the sight of joy once, brought the creature no joy anymore. Instead, the notification seemed to mock it these days, despite no change in its wordings. ‘How has my speed increased? Hasn’t it decreased instead?’

Ting.

[The Skill [Crawl] has reached the Level limit of your current Vessel. Evolve further to increase the Level limit of your Skills. Current Skill Level limit: Level 5]

‘…’

The former mortal’s eyes widened.

‘…’

Its pupils widened.

‘…’

Its mouth fell open but nary a sound escaped.

Just what was it reading? There was a Level cap for Skills related to evolution? ‘Does that mean…’

The tiny creature’s heart sank and an all-consuming hollowness filled its heart. Its blood pumped faster but the creature didn’t seem to notice. Its body twitched but the creature didn’t notice. Its mind frayed like a ball of string unravelling. ‘Doesn’t that mean…’

‘…’

The creature’s fragile mind reached an edge and war within its mind began to reach a crescendo. Meanwhile, it laughed.

For more than half of its new life, the creature had been torturing itself by poison. Twice a day. Everyday. Just to increase the Level of its Skill, [Poison Resistance]. And all this time, the Skill had not levelled it up even once.

‘Now I know why!’ It continued to laugh.

The war intensified.

The Skill, [Poison Resistance], was its highest Levelled skill. It had always been its highest levelled Skill. It had been like that since it had received it when it had been born. It had always been at Level 5.

And the creature had been trying to increase its Level. ‘Obviously! I couldn’t have done it!’

The war intensified.

It had been going through hell and back for this. It had suffered so much for this. It had gone through so much for this. ‘It was all for nothing.’

The war intensified.

All that effort, for nothing. All that pain, for nothing. All that agony, for nothing.

Half of its life, for nothing. ‘Is everything that I do, for nothing?’

The war intensified.

At that moment, the sky that had been overcast all morning roared.

THHHHNNNDDDDDRRRRRR

The rumble of the clouds brought some sense of sanity to the creature and it resumed its march back home. It was halfway through the route when it started raining and the creature hurriedly climbed up the nearest tree to seek shelter.

It could no longer go back home. Not with the rain and mud blocking its path.

The caterpillar sighed and the sigh seems to contain exhaustion. Exhaustion from having died. Exhaustion from having been reborn. Exhaustion from the near-death experiences. Exhaustion from the constant hunger. The [Survivor] was tired. Its body was failing. Its time was running out. And it could do nothing about anything.

The caterpillar, for the first time, felt the twilight, that its body had already reached. It stared at the falling rain for a moment before it dug into the bark of the tree to make a temporary shelter for the night.

As the creature fell asleep, it gave no thought to the rain.

But if the creature had been a poetic Mortal, it would have felt that even the sky shared its sorrow and cried for it. However, the creature was not a poetic Mortal but an Immortal and the sky would not cry for a bug. The weather had begun changing and monsoon had just been announcing its arrival. The rain had been just another natural phenomenon.

0.0

The next day the former sorceress woke up to the beautiful sight of a refreshed forest. The rain had washed away all the layers of accumulated dust. As a result, the colours seemed brighter and the air fresher.

The sight had been beautiful but it didn’t evoke any joy in the creature for what it saw was not beauty but the end of summer and its life.

That is until it saw something.

The former mortal’s eyes widened and its blood raced in excitement. The lethargy, that had seemed to be encompassing it, for the past few weeks, dissipated and new energy almost seemed to flow in its body.

The creature had spotted snails. And not one but multiple.

It seemed that the snails were creatures that thrived only in monsoon. The ones that it had encountered before, had been the ones that had come out rather early. And this had also been the reason that the caterpillar had not been able to find any more snails. They all had been waiting for the monsoon and the rain. But now that the rain had heralded the arrival of monsoon, the snails had begun to come out.

The creature laughed and the defeat, that had begun to spread its root within the bug’s heart, died an early death.

At that moment, another thing happened. The war that had been reaching its crescendo, slowed down. The intensity of the war suffered a blowback and things began to mellow. But the creature knew nothing about it and remained unbothered. It remained ignorant.

What followed the blooming joy within the caterpillar’s heart had been nothing but ambushes, traps and deaths. Snails after snails were baited by the tiny bug and drowned within the venom pools. One after another, snails died until the caterpillar reached Level 100 within a single day.

Ting.

[You have Levelled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

With the death of the last snail, the former sorceress goal was achieved. Yet, out of habit, the tiny being crawled into the venom puddle and bit into the carcass of the dead snail. The bug then dragged the snail over to the edge of the branch and threw it down.

Crunch!

It winced at the sound and turned to look down. There it saw the snail carcass, burying a scorpion under it. The scorpion, though having taken a great deal of damage, was still very much alive.

The caterpillar prayed that the fanged creature wouldn’t look up and think that the caterpillar was the one who had attacked it. The tiny bug knew that it could not take down a scorpion as a Caterpillar. Not after it had seen the last scorpion shrug off its venom like mild spice.

Fortunately for the caterpillar, the scorpion did not seem to be sapient, or intelligent for that matter, as it attacked the dead snail with its stinger in retaliation. The dumb creature thought that the dead snail had attacked it.

The caterpillar sighed in relief.

The scorpion, with great difficulty, managed to throw the snail shell off of it before it began to chomp down on the snail with gusto. ‘Is this the same scorpion that had eaten the previously poisoned snail?’

It sure looked the same as it devoured the snail.

The caterpillar scowled. ‘F*** you too buddy!’

Ting.

[You have reached Level 100. Do you want to Evolve now?]

[Yes]      [No]

The caterpillar’s blood raced and its breaths shortened. It stared at the screen with its eyes wide and mouth opened. ‘Finally! Yes! I can evolve!’

Apparently, the creature’s mental shout of joy had been considered as agreement by the System as a new notification appeared. But the creature hastily dismissed it.

Ting.

[You can evolve later by selecting the ‘Evolve’ option from your Status window.]

It was not that the creature did not want to evolve, no, that was not that case. Far from it. But the creature, currently, was out in the open where any passing bird could gobble it up for a light snack. Thus, is postponed its evolution until it had found a suitable safe place.

Though, that was easier said than done. Now that it had rained, its old home would have been flooded since it was, literally, a hole in the ground. And the creature could only make a hideout in the trees since only there could it remain safe from water in case it rained again.

But trees were no place of safety as both, snails and birds, would target them to look for food.

The former sorceress frowned. It was feeling homeless for the first time since its rebirth. It turned around to look at the shelter it had made for the night; it was but a hole in the tree and an idea formed in its mind.

The caterpillar marched within its shelter began to dig deeper and wider while keeping the mouth of the opening small. It made the shelter at least 5 times larger than its body as it needed a lot of space for the second step of its plan. It took the creature an entire day to dig the hole deep and wide enough. And with that done, it crawled down to execute the second part of its plan.

Once on the ground, the caterpillar bit down on the wet mud and carried a mouthful of mud back to its shelter before spitting it out within the hole. The creature repeated the process for 2 entire days to collect enough mud for what it needed. Meanwhile, whenever it felt that the mud had begun to dry out a bit, it used its Skill [Venom Creation] to moisten the mud right back up.

It was not the amount of mud needed that caused the caterpillar to take 2 whole days. Rather, it had been its slow speed and easily tired aged body.

Once the mud had been collected, the creature began to seal up the entrance of its shelter with the venom laced mud. It took quite some time for the creature to accomplish the task but it was still completed within a day.

Thus, it was on the 84^th day since its birth, and only 6 days before its lifespan ended, the [Reincarnated] finally felt prepared to evolve and called up its Status.

[Unnamed] [Skills] [Spells] [Dharma] [Evolve]

The creature trembled as it focused on the option, [Evolve].

Ting.

[Do you want to evolve now?]

[Yes]       [No]

Grinning, it focused on [Yes].

Ting.

[Choose your form.]

[Butterfly Lv.1: Inherited form.]

[Moth Lv.1: Variant. Granted due to your unorthodox methods.]

It read both the options and its body twitched in confusion. ‘What does it mean by “unorthodox methods”?’

‘Eh? The only thing that I can think of is the usage of traps to kill the snails? There is nothing else. If that is the case, then was I not supposed to be capable of killing them at all? Huh. And is that why I was given such a hefty experience?’

‘So, does this also mean that I was supposed to evolve into a butterfly? What-No.’ The creature’s stubs squirmed in disapproval as it processed the information. ‘No, sir. I am not choosing to be a butterfly. Moth it is.’

Ting.

[You have chosen Moth as your evolution. Are you sure?]

[Yes]       [No]

Ting.

[Evolution will begin now. Time Remaining: 30 days.]

Before it could even dismiss the screen, an overbearing urge to spit hit the creature. It straightened itself up and stood up on its hind legs as its mouth came down and spat something that began solidifying as soon as it left its mouth.

The creature watched in horrified fascination as its body began to spin a cocoon around itself, transforming it into a pupa. ‘What am it doing? And why am I doing this?’ But more importantly, how was the creature doing it? It did not have any skill relat-

-X-

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

-X-

Spoiler: Spoiler