Caterpillars are generally weak animals with some being poisonous and others having the abiliy to shoot string........seeing its status I could tell it was much stronger then me.
[adult poison caterpillar]
level: 19
HP: 140
But to get strong fast. Risk is a must. Good thing im smarter then most animals.......no smarter then animals in general atleast. Now I know that through out the past few days of scouting and absorbing larvae as nutrition that animals evolve into a higher evolution around each tenth level depending on the species. So according to my observation this caterpillar will find an isolated area and form its cocoon........thats when caterpillars are at their weakest.
Knowing the caterpillar would evolve soon I followed along the black barked trees, for some reason I was also black even as a larva so it was the perfect camouflage. After 12 hours of constant following it headed to deep into the branches and hung upside down, started shining until a purple pulsing cocoon wrapped around it.
'nows my chance'
I quickly sprinted to the cocoon and directly stabbed my stinger into its but as I tried to inject my poison the caterpillar also injected its poison into me, However instead of feeling pain my skill [absorb] activated and I felt the poison being broken down, transcribed and translated into a poison that was compatible with my venom sac, the newly translated poison interlaced with my original poison and created a stronger variation.
[lowest level poison obtained]
[venom sac has increased my 3 points, You may now choose an upgrade. Would you like to pick?]
'yes yes quickly!!'
Even though caterpillars arent made to have strong teeth, this was a level 19 adult so I was rapidly losing health and perhaps soon my tail.
[pick:]
[squirting] [corrosive]
I quickly chose corrosive since squirting didn't seem like It would do much without it being corrosive first. I quickly released my newly corrosive poison into the sack and removed my half chewed stinger, seeing its HP dropping at a slow rate of just 1 every 3 seconds was gonna take too long and the poison seemed like it wouldnt last that long so I decided to pincer the stalk of the cocoon but instead found how durable it was. I looked down seeing the caterpillar biting through its cocoon trying to climb out and attack me.
My mind was racing, I quickly stabbed my stinger towards the stalk releasing more and more poison. seeing the stalk still standing firm, panic was starting to seep through but just before it did I noticed the brand below my feet. I quickly put my all into pincering and stinging the branch. Just as the caterpillar made its was out. The branch snapped and fell.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
[you have leveled up]
[you have leveled up]
[you have leveled up]
[you have leveled up]
At 9 HP remaining I killed the caterpillar. I quickly healed due to the levels up and checked my status. Noticing 20 DP, and distributed it according to what I thought best.
[Adelram status]
species: scorpion larva
level: 8
health: 50
vitality: 10
exoskeleton: 10
legs: 7
pincers: 6
tail: 7
venom sac: 10
DP: 0
attributes: [lowest poison]
abilities: {absorb} {poison sting}
[exoskeleton has reached 10 points, would you like to choose an upgrade?]
'yes'
[pick:]
[bronze] [rubber]
Harder or more impact absorbent huh, while rubber does seem like a good choice......it felt like a dead end and it couldnt block the bite I suffered.
'bronze'
Suddenly a heat was escaped the very core of my body and into my exoskeleton, not causing pain but instead cause a comforting cracking and hardening sensation..........it was weird.
[lowest metallic armor obtained]
Though I thought I my change to the colour bronze, it seems my worries were for nothing as it was just that my body took the attributes of bronze.
After returning from my hunting trip and resting through the night I came up with several hypotheses. One being that absorb was much more then it first seemed, able to absorb not just nutrients but also attributes. Two I would probably evolve at level 10. Finally three, unfortunately my only option was to find and attack more cocoons due to weaker animals being guarded by parents.
However this time I was a bit smarter only keeping an eye out for poison and attributeless caterpillars and staying away from things I had no resistance against like dark and flame caterpillars. Yes it seemed attributes as such were common in the animal kingdom with fire foxes and water mice. Thinking mice were easy targets was a big mistake since they had strong teeth, very fast legs and quick reflexes.
Luckily predators generally only went for their specific prey, rarily attacking other creatures unless through self defense or because of territory. I had rare few predators, not because I was a scorpion, but because I was a black scorpion, seems like my black exoskeleton, purple eyes and purple tipped stinger gave off danger. My predators were rare because only if they were poison attributed would they be willing to risk attacking me. I got away from them through camouflage and hiding under rocks during my scouting time.
This time I followed an attributeless caterpillar and instead of bothering to sting its cocoon, I directly cut the branch from the bark, killing the caterpillar. Not risking a fight.
[leveled up]
[leveled up]
I quickly distributed my DP so that all my stats reached 10.
[tail, legs and pincers have reached 10 points, would you like to upgrade them?]
'yes'
[tail-pick:]
[flexibility] [double stinger]
'damn both so tempting, but the idea of being able to bend my tail the other way and use it in unorthodox methods is tempting................I choose flexibility'
The same heat from before that upgraded my exoskeleton spread to my tail, reconstructing it......I moved it around, it had more segments and moved more like a monkeys tail.
[legs-pick]
[firm] [spring]
I easily chose spring since being able to jump away in battle sounded perfect, the same warm current ran through me and into my legs. I jumped and..........it was disappointing with only a few inches of height, but it was a vast improvement.
[pincers-pick]
[grip] [pierce]
the pincers struggled to cut through the wood earlier since they acted like a blunt knife on wood but I imagine grip to be a more jagged pincer so it would do a better job.
'I choose grip'
As I predicted my pincers gained a jagged structure which acted like a saw but also a powerful grip.
[you have reached level 10, would you like to evolve?]
'yes'