Levi tore a strip of cloth from his shirt and wrapped it tightly around his injured foot, hoping to stem the bleeding. Thankfully, after some time, the bleeding did stop.

But as he sat there, dealing with the makeshift bandage, he couldn't help but feel the weight of his situation. Levi's stomach grumbled aloud reminding him that his body needed food, only that he didn't have anything that he could eat to satisfy his hunger.

Once again, he was reminded of how important it is to have money - If only he could have bought a spatial device or if only he had better supplies, he wouldn't be in such a dire state.

'Sigh…'

With careful steps, Levi continued walking, unsure of where he was headed or if it was even safe to move around like this. But staying put wasn't an option.

Hunger he could manage for a while, he was used to it, but thirst was a different beast. His throat was parched, and his body was crying out for water.

"Is there even a monster here?" Levi wondered aloud. He didn't know how long he had been walking, but his injured foot had already gone numb. He needed to find something to drink, and soon.

As he wandered, his eyes kept darting to the strange trees around him.

"What are these things?" he murmured, examining the skeletal, leafless forms.

The trees bore no flowers, fruits, or nuts, only a faint green glow emanating from their bark.

"Is that moss?" Levi wondered, approaching one of the trees.

What he saw made him pause.

Small creatures, resembling worms, were latched onto the bark. Their tiny mouths were firmly attached to the tree as if they were draining it of something. There were hundreds of them, each glowing faintly green, together creating the eerie luminescence of the trees.

Levi leaned in closer, curiosity piqued. Suddenly, runes appeared in front of his eyes:

[Larvae of Lunacy]

[Rank - Dormant Monsters]

"What the...?" Levi cursed aloud, startled to see these worms classified as Dormant Monsters. He took a cautious step back, wary of getting involved with anything too dangerous, but his eyes remained fixed on the larvae.

The larvae seemed oblivious to his presence. Levi couldn't discern any sensory organs apart from their suction-like mouths attached to the bark. Could they even sense him? He wasn't sure.

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Driven by curiosity, Levi decided to test something. He reached out, grabbing one of the worms' bodies, and tried to pull it off the tree.

"Ugh! This is disgusting," he muttered, feeling the sticky mucus coating the worm's body. Despite his efforts, the worm didn't budge.

The creature was small, about two inches long, but it clung to the tree with surprising strength. Levi gritted his teeth and pulled harder, and this time, the worm finally came off. Its mouth flailed wildly, revealing sharp teeth that had been hidden before.

Levi frowned at the sight, disgusted by the worm's grotesque appearance, and quickly dropped it to the ground. He watched it squirm for a moment before stepping back.

The worm flailed on the ground, its legless, mucus-covered body struggling in vain to return to the tree.

But Levi didn't give it a chance. With a swift movement, he brought his foot down on it, and with a sickening splat, the worm's body burst under his weight, sending a spray of sticky fluid around his foot.

"Urgh…" Levi grimaced, feeling the slimy substance coating his skin. It was utterly revolting. But before he could dwell on the disgust, a message appeared before his eyes:

[You have killed a Dormant Monster - Larvae of Lunacy]

Levi stared at the message, puzzled.

That had been almost too easy.

He recalled the first monster he had encountered with the group—the Lizog—and even the scorpion he had fought alongside the tall boy. Both had also been classified as Dormant Monsters, but the effort it had taken to defeat them had been significantly greater than what he had just done.

It had taken all of his efforts, along with the two other boys, to kill the scorpion, its strong exo-skeleton and poison stinger giving them a headache. And although the Lizog had been easily slain by the blue-haired girl in a single attack, Levi still felt that killing this larva was incomparably easier than those.

"How are they both the same rank?" Levi mused aloud, baffled by the discrepancy.

These tiny larvae were ranked as Dormant Monsters, yet they seemed far less dangerous. Still, he knew one thing for certain: Providence didn't make mistakes.

If these creatures were categorized as Dormant Monsters, there had to be a good reason for it.

"I don't know why… but…" Levi muttered, trailing off.

The truth was, he didn't need a reason to kill monsters.

Of course, it might seem pointless to slaughter these larvae when they didn't even yield a core or grant him any demonic essence. But Levi wasn't just hoping for the ordinary spoils.

He was after something else.

Artifacts.

Providence occasionally rewarded artifacts for killing monsters, though the probability was less than 1%. The rarity of the drop wasn't a problem for him now.

What mattered was the sheer number of larvae around him.

"There are hundreds… no, thousands of them," Levi observed, his gaze sweeping across the glowing trees, each one teeming with the small, luminescent larvae. He couldn't even count the number of trees, let alone the larvae attached to them.

"I wonder—what would happen if I kill all the larvae?" Levi pondered, a slow smile creeping across his face.

There was only one way to find out.

His disgust was quickly replaced by a sense of purpose. He didn't care if it was messy, disgusting, or tedious—if there was a chance to gain something valuable from this, he would take it.

After all, in this place, every advantage counted. And right now, Levi was ready to seize any opportunity, no matter how small or slimy it might be.

---***---

Author Note:

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