I squinted into the light, my heart racing. I’d just been shot, I was dying!

There was no pain, looking down I couldn’t see my body. I panicked glancing around the white endless expanse I was in. This wasn’t where I had just been I’d been bleeding out in…in… I couldn’t remember where I’d been. I’d been shot and dying I knew that but why was I shot, who was I? I started panicking again realizing I couldn’t remember a thing about myself right now, name? Nada, what I’d done for a living? No clue. Why and where I’d been shot? Hadn’t the foggiest.

The lack of information actually made me start to lose my panic and focus. It’s hard to be afraid of, well nothing. Taking stock of my situation I looked around me. Where was I?

Welcome to Anthora! You have been reincarnated into the world of Anthora to help repopulate it, the world has suffered a series of cataclysmic events within the past century which have massively depopulated its species. You have been randomly selected to be reincarnated as one of the lost species, please select from the following options.

Dolomedes Plantarisu Sapiens (Raft-Spider Humanoid): Starting gender male or female.

Starting Skills: Water Walking (Uncommon), Silk Weaving (Rare), Hibernation (uncommon), Tremor Sense (Rare)

Starting Mutation Paths: Spinnerets (Rare), Paddle Legs (uncommon), Fangs (uncommon), Feeler Hairs (Rare)

Stenophylla Cryptus (Monstrous Mantis): Starting gender male or female (Warning starting intellect may be affected by base Stats)

Starting Skills: Camouflage (Uncommon), Carnivorous (Common), Sneak Attack (Uncommon), Jump (Uncommon)

Starting Mutation Paths: Raptorial Legs (Rare), Compression Muscles (uncommon), Mandibles (uncommon)

Dolichovespula Sapiens (Yellowjacket Humanoid): Starting gender male or female.

Starting Skills: Hivemaker (uncommon), Carnivorous (common), Social (Uncommon) Flight (Uncommon)

Starting Mutation Paths: Adhesive Saliva (uncommon), Stinger (Rare), Venom Sack (Rare), Hunter Antenna (uncommon)

Dorylus Sapiens (Nomadic Army-Ant Humanoid): Starting gender female.

Starting Skills: Command (Rare), Social (Uncommon), Omnivorous (Uncommon), Healing Feelers (Rare)

Starting Mutation Paths: Pheromone Gland (uncommon), Mass Ovipositor (Rare), Mandibles (uncommon), Regenerative Saliva (Rare)

Lumbricina Sapiens (Earth-Worm Humanoid): Starting Gender, male or female (Can switch between genders as needed).

Starting Mutation Paths: Adhesive Mucus Gland (Rare), Absorption Gland (uncommon), Pressure Sensors (Rare), Toxic Blood (uncommon)

Starting Skills: Digger (Uncommon), Herbivore (common), Segmentation (Rare), Tremor Sense (Rare)

I ignored the screen for a moment as the revelation I was dead hit me. I wanted to deny it but the words from the screen just felt true in a way I couldn’t describe. I was dead, I had left whatever life and or world I’d come from. Now I was being reincarnated, maybe this was something that happened to everyone, maybe it had happened to me already. Since I couldn’t remember anything about my past life, I couldn’t be sure.

I could still remember things, I wasn’t a blank slate; I knew for instance that sulfur, charcoal and saltpeter combine to form gunpowder, that you shouldn’t mix bleach and ammonia, or you’d get mustard gas. But when it came to personal details like my name, my family, job or friends I couldn’t remember a thing.

Feeling the panic coming back I pushed it aside to focus on the prompt I’d been given. There was a scientific name followed by a translation, Raft-Spider Humanoid. As I read those words, I was suddenly sure I had been human in my past life. I held onto that tiny piece of who I was, every detail vital for my sense of self. Looking over it I read the starting skills and whatever a mutation tree was. I looked like I’d be some sort of water dwelling insect person if I chose that option. It didn’t sound bad and being some sort of spider sounded kind of cool, but I’d look over all my options before coming to any sort of decision.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Monstrous Mantis sounded awesome but the warning about a possible reduction in my intelligence was a serious problem. I didn’t think I was a genius or anything, but I knew that intelligence was way more important than just raw brawn or physical toughness. Ask tigers and lions how being stronger and faster than humans is working out on the survival success rate. The monstrous mantis’ abilities all focused around being some sort of stealth assassin hunter which was interesting but not enough to look past the intelligence penalty.

The next option was much more palatable, Yellowjacket humanoid. Wasps were assholes so that wasn’t great, but I could always choose not to be an asshole. Its abilities were another point in its favor, I wasn’t sure what Hivemaker was exactly, or Social but having a stinger sounded great, and Flight instantly put it at the top of my list. The other options of Hunter Antenna and Venom Sack I could guess what they did and they both sounded useful. Carnivorous was self-explanatory but it sounded like it would limit my food choices, but I could live with that.

The next option Nomadic Army Ant was interesting but looking at its gender restriction and abilities made me discount it. I felt down to my core that I had been male in my past life, and I wanted to hold onto as much of who I’d been before as I could. Plus, the abilities made me think I’d be playing as an ant queen creating soldiers to send out instead of doing anything myself. I wanted to be active not some passive manager of others.

When I read the last option Earth Worm Humanoid, I was equally disappointed. Just the name was bad, there was nothing cool about the idea of being a worm. Its abilities were all bummers to and I didn’t see a single ability or mutation that looked like it gave an option for offense. No wonder these people had gone extinct.

After reading everything I went back to the Yellowjacket option.

“I pick this one?” I said my words more of a question as I was unsure how to actually make my selection or who I was talking to.

Congratulations on making your selection! As you are a reincarnate on Anthora you will be given an additional trait of your choice! Please select from the following options.

What proceeded was a list thousands of options long, I tried reading carefully at first but eventually I just started skimming through them. There were ones that would increase all damage I dealt, one that would allow me to rapidly heal during combat, one that would give my natural weapons an electric property, one that allowed me to see perfectly in all conditions. There was a trait for almost everything, but they all had their downsides. For instance, one called diamond carapace would make my exterior incredibly hard but would reduce my movement speed by one quarter and reduce Flight to Gliding.

I kept reading until I settled on one choice that stuck out.

Analyze Absorption (Unique): For the cost of one tenth of your current XP you absorb a creature via touch gaining access to one random branch of an ability’s evolution tree, continuous use on the same type of creature reduces the chance of gaining a new branch by 10% per successful use. Doing so destroys all biomass in the creature but will allow you to modify your biological structure to gain new organs with that species specific ability.

The description of the trait told me a lot about the world I was going too. For instance, it was like some RPG with experience points to earn. There was biomass which presumably I’d need for something. I liked the trait it seemed like a way for me to farm anything I fought for new abilities or ways to upgrade myself.

If I thought of my species like classes, then this would be a way for me to play as one class and steal different features from other classes multiclassing into something that no one could prepare for or predict. The ability had a cost, I’d lose XP and all the biomass from the creature, but I would gain something potentially infinitely more valuable. Ultimately, I didn’t know enough about the world I’d be spawned into to tell if this was a good choice or not, but I decided to take the risk.

“I want this option,” I told the mysterious voice my voice audible but coming from no source and everywhere at once.

Trait selected! Finalizing character creation, please select from your species base starting traits and then select your gender.

Warrior (Uncommon): A soldier of your hive you gain increased experience from combat. Increased chance to learn new combat related abilities.

Crafter (common): Focused on building up your hive to expand your borders you gain increased experience from finishing structures and items. Increased chance to learn new crafter related abilities.

Breeder (Rare): A hive’s strength is often in its numbers; you gain a percentage of the experience from all your spawn. Increased chance to learn new social and rearing abilities.

The options here were much more limited but that made it easier to choose. The first option would be for me if I planned on being more aggressive. The second didn’t seem very wasp like but a strong base was probably an important thing to construct. The third was something someone playing the long game would choose no increased experience for your direct actions, but you could eventually rake in loads of experience if you had enough children, and your hive was strong.

I dismissed crafter, I didn’t dislike the idea of building but doing so as my primary method of leveling up wasn’t appealing. That left Warrior and Breeder, Breeder was the better of the two options, but it had one major downside, I would need other wasps to make it work. Since I was literally the only current member of an extinct species as far as I knew that would be extremely hard to find.

“I select Warrior and male,” I said.

Congratulations and welcome to Anthora! The voice chimed out. Please select a name or one will be entered for you.

I’d had a name before I was sure of it, but I had no memory of it now. What was a name for a wasp? Wasps could fly, had stinger, lived in hives and hunted other bugs. I was a warrior, and both my starting traits incentivized me to go out and kill as many other bugs as possible. Wasps and hornets were at the apex of the insect hierarchy capable of killing spiders, frogs and small rodents five times their size.

“Predator,” I told the voice.

Everything went black.