Fin found the spot that he slept in. He stared at the ground until he saw a red ant. After watching it for a while, other ants appeared in his vision, wandering aimlessly across the dirt. He watched them until he found their nest. Before he did anything, he checked his quest log.

* Blood Quest: Devour your enemies: +1 level, +3 gold stat points, +1 eye ability. Forfeit all Pain Quests

* Pain Quest: Swallow your enemies whole: +1 level, +4 basic ability points, +1 Talon ability, Forfeit all Blood Quests

He decided to take the blood quest path. The extra, basic ability point wouldn’t help him here, not with the severe lack of food. The Talon ability seemed interesting, but he could only choose one path. The eye ability for the blood quest might prove to be incredibly useful. He wondered if it would make him see in the dark. If he could escape at night and still be able to find his way around, it would be worth it. He wasn’t sure what he would do if the rewards were better for the pain quests, but he was glad not to feel like he was missing out on something.

He made the decision to choose the blood quest path. Now all he needed to do was make sure he didn’t swallow any fire ants whole. He picked up one ant, popped its head off with his thumbnail, and tossed it into his mouth. He chewed the crunchy, acidic ant and then swallowed the best he could. He felt the grainy particles of the ant in his teeth, but nothing happened.

He grabbed another ant and chewed it without pulling the head off first. Again, there are no status notifications, gold stat points, or abilities. He went to the ant hill next to the rock and began agitating them.

He reached down, and they swarmed on his fingers, leaving tingling sensations on his hand. He licked them off of his fingers, trying not to clean the dirt off too much, and chewed the ants together. The flavor was enough to make him gag, but he pressed forward. He looked at his feet and noticed more ants were climbing on him. He took those, too, one at a time, and put them into his mouth.

Finding that he was collecting ants on his legs faster than he could eat, he moved away. He repeated the process multiple times, moving closer and farther from the ant hill, popping them one by one into his mouth.

Finally, a status popped up, and he raised his hands triumphantly. Spitting the residual and parts out of his mouth, he viewed the message:

* Path Quest Complete: Gain over a hundred enemies +1 ability point, +2 Quests Revealed.

* Blood quest: Defeat all your enemies. +2 levels, +8 gold stat points. Blood Halo. Forfeit all Pain Quests.

* Pain Quest: Make all your enemies suffer. +2 levels, +8 gold stat points. Pain Halo. Forfeit all Blood quests.

He immediately stopped spitting out the ants. That wasn’t unexpected. Not only was he not done eating bitter, sour ants, but he also received another impossible quest. How was he supposed to defeat all his enemies? Not impossible, he thought. I just completed the most brutal-looking quest I had. I just need to come up with creative ways to outsmart the quest system. That’s all.

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He still had questions. How was he going to kill every red ant that bit him? What about the ant’s little friends who hadn’t bitten him? Do they count as enemies he would need to defeat? And that was not counting all the slavers in the camp. Or was it just the goblin who poked him with a stick that he needed to kill? All he knew for sure was he was done making enemies.

Looking again, he noticed he was given a new ability point. He put the thought aside and began picking the rest of the ants off his skin. He was starting to feel like they didn't count as enemies until after they bit him. He thanked Frome, the farmer's deity, for his resistance to pain. All he needed now was to figure out how many more of these ants he needed to eat before it qualified as devouring his enemies.

Another thought occurred, do ants have hearts? If he could figure out how to remove the beating heart of an ant, he could kill more birds with one stone or more ants with his… He left the thought alone and picked up another ant off his leg. He tried to crush it to find its heart but failed. It only took crushing four ants into paste until he gave up and started eating them again.

He was beginning to feel sick when another notification came up:

* Blood Quest Complete: Devour your enemies: +1 level, +3 gold stat points, +1 eye ability. Forfeit all Pain Quests.

* Ability: Discern Magic - locked until level 5.

“Okay, that’s interesting,” he said out loud. He was having a very productive day. He completed a quest, gained a new ability, learned how to use it, got some unique attributes, and then earned another quest, and the day was just beginning.

He checked his status to see what he had. There were three basic stat points, 4 golden stat points, and one ability point waiting to be used. There was no way he was going to upgrade anything that required food or sleep for now. He decided to come up with a plan before he accidentally allocated anything. He didn’t know where to start on the plan, so he started walking back around the loop, keeping his eyes on the upper parameter guards as he walked.

His stomach was feeling sour. He wasn’t sure if it was the fire ants or whatever he ate for breakfast, but he couldn’t afford to toss up his sustenance. He tried keeping his mind on keeping his food down. His insides turned, but he kept walking. It was a slower pace, but he kept moving.

The farther he walked, the more he realized he should have seen Brando by now. Oh well, He thought, it’s not like he could have gone far. His bare foot stepped on a shattered rock. It could have been the rock he crushed, but there were rocks everywhere, and they all looked the same. He clutched his stomach and continued forward.