When I finally woke up, I was still in complete darkness. At first, I thought it was because I didn't need as many hours of sleep like a human, so it could be that I woke up in the middle of the night.

Then, I remembered the exact nature of my shelter, including its complete lack of windows and the fact that it was under a whole tree, in the middle of a forest, so the sunrays would have a "slight" difficulty to reach me down here.

"Right, right. Stand up and begin a new day."

A thing I couldn't help to notice was that, even after a night of rest, I was feeling extremely sluggish, like my arms were made of lead. Also, my stomach was grumbling quite loudly, so it was time for breakfast!

Unable to see anything, I felt around until I made contact with the corpses of my preys, exactly where I put them last night.

Sure, they weren't put in a fridge, but after only one day, they couldn't already be rotten to the point of being inedible... Right?

After a tentative bite of the Bunja (I guessed it was it, going by the size), and I was left with a not pleasant taste in my mouth.

I could eat it, but apparently, its meat wasn't made for storage, seeing as it needed only a few hours to lose its freshness.

*Better eat it all, lest it goes even worse than already it is.*

So, I devoured every piece of the Larva, leaving only the sturdy plates that made up its helmet. Maybe I could find a use for those later if I ever got some more dexterous hands to fashion myself a suit of armour.

An armoured monster mantis, now that was a terrifying sight!

But even after eating the whole Bunja, my hunger wasn't satiated, bringing me to consume the rest of the Tigules too.

If its meat was tough to eat when it was still alive, after a few hours, it was even worse. It felt like I was trying to eat a leather belt, not only for the texture but also the taste!

I forced myself to finish all of it, only leaving its teeth on the ground, as they were actually inedible.

With my hunger finally sated, I thought it would make me feel better, but I was still devoid of energy.

"Maybe I need a breath of fresh air. The ventilation inside here is awful."

Going tentatively, I found the door, and I started to move all the bark pieces to emerge from the hole that I called "home".

After a few moments to adapt to the brightness of the outside world, I looked around to see if there were any dangers, and as there were none, I got out fully, trying to speed up my movements.

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When I reached a place well lit, I let the sunlight wash over me, feeling the warmth spread on all my exoskeleton and making me finally feeling energized!

*Oh. I need light to jump-start my body. The sun just became my new caffeine.*

It was something to take into consideration for the future; if being too long in the darkness caused my body to slow down, then I needed to find another accommodation. Meanwhile, I had to find some way to illuminate my home or let me see in the dark, even if both of them would be a perfect achievement.

*Let's think of ways to light up the place.*

The first solution coming to my mind was fire! It could make light, warm up the whole place and be used for cooking my meals. Even the worse tasting meat could get a bit better once cooked, maybe with a sprinkling of aromatic herb too.

But on the other side, I had no way to start a fire: my claws couldn't hold a stick and move it with enough speed to generate heat. I would have to find some supernatural way to make it, and I doubted it would be an easy task.

Also, I lived under a tree, with not enough space to hold a wood stack at a safe distance from the flame and a low wooden ceiling. Not only it was the textbook definition of a fire hazard, but there was no ventilation: I'd die of suffocation from the smoke before even catching fire myself.

"Proposal denied! At least until I can make a real house."

I thought, crossing my arms in front of me while starting to move and search for new prey. My fast metabolism meant I had to keep hunting and preparing new storage every day until I reached maturity, and even after that.

The second and more safe idea was to find some glowing mushrooms or moss. Such things were common elements in caverns, even in my previous world, so it was possible to get them in a more fantasy one. And lacking those, maybe some crystals infused by mana? I had an MP bar, so there was magic in this world and this Vilpuo Forest, still untouched by human hands, there was bound to have someplace filled up with magical energy. This was also commonplace in fantasy settings.

Sure, they couldn't be used to cook, but they would require little maintenance and really spruce up the place with their mystical glow.

*I just need to find a deep enough cave.*

And that would be the main problem. I would have to search in the whole forest for a cave, explore that in search of the mushrooms/moss/crystals and then bring back my haul, all of that while staying alive.

Not really something I was confident to do right now. I had to resort to the last option, the thing that I knew I would have to get at some point, but I didn't think it would be so soon.

*I need to get the freaking darkvision.*

And that meant I had to find and kill a monster in possession of such ability. Those creatures would be obviously active at night when I wouldn't be able to look for them, making me an easy target for every hungry predator in the area unless I had some Skill to see in the dark to locate them before they get to me.

"I'm running in circles. And that's hoping I'm suitable to get that Skill."

I was almost sure that there wouldn't be compatibility problems, as mantises were hunters dependent on their eyes and Mantreas were practically the same, so sight-based Skills should be accessible for me. But I had to find a way to get around the problem of finding some prey able to see in the night while I was unable to see it.

*Ahhh. To hell with this problem! I'll solve it another time, and I'll focus on getting stronger for now.*

It wasn't something that required immediate attention. It was just my desire to have some comfort sooner than later. I could endure a bit of roughness for some time.

It was more urgent to build up my strengths and increase my chance at survival, and that meant only one thing: grinding, grinding and more grinding!

I would go out there and level up both my Skill and myself till I reached the point of being a real alpha threat in this field. I would maximize my fighting and hunting abilities so that I would never get hungry. And I would improve my smarts to never lose control like yesterday!

*And I would start from my Camouflage!*

So, I found a nice patch of green grass, placed myself in the middle of it and did my best to resemble a blade of grass, waiting for some creature to try and come near me so that I could ambush it instead.

After a long time, where I started to feel new pangs of hunger, there was no prey close to me, and no notification of Skill level up manifested to my eyes.

I looked around discreetly, finding no trace of any creature in the proximity, and yet my impersonation of grass seemed quite remarkable. Then, I realized:

"Camouflage can't level up if there are no things to hide from."

I had to go where there was a bit more movement, which meant going in the heart of the grass field, where my surviving brothers and sisters roamed.

Resigning myself to deal with my stronger siblings, I sighed (or whatever was the bug equivalent of a sigh), got out of my ambush spot and dwelled in the more open and populated area, readying myself to face every possibility, even the worse ones.