Scanning the grassy jungle for a new targets with my antenna and compound eyes I stalked forward. I kept moving deeper into the thicker grass. I was trying to level my stealth by smearing my carapace with mud and sticking to the shadows. I spotted a giant centipede.
Lithobius Forficatus Cryptus (Monstrous Stone Centipede): Level 7. Health: 84.
This was the same species as the first bug I ever killed. It was a higher level and a lot more hit points than me, but I thought I could take it. It was just one creature as opposed to an entire swarm of ants or the dozens of clover mites. The centipede was moving along the ground, its antenna tapping at the ground and air in front of it. Slowly following in its passage, I waited for the opportune moment to strike.
It entered a dark tunnel and I frowned but slowly followed it inside.
Level Up Stealth! Stealth Level 4!
Level Up Camouflage! Camouflage Level 3!
It was dark in the tunnel, and I could barely see but I crept after the centipede. Mindful of my footing so as not to make a sound my antenna twitched providing me sensory information on the environment around me. I entered into a much larger chamber with tunnels branching out in other directions. The centipede was curled around a pile of white orbs. Eggs, I realized.
Moving forward inch by inch I readied myself to strike. It was difficult to tell which end was the head but eventually I saw the two beady eyes and made sure to target the correct end of the centipede lining up my stinger, I crouched then sprung.
Level Up Sneak Attack! Sneak Attack Level 3!
My attack had been a sneak attack and on a critical area and I saw from the creature’s health bar that it had done double damage. My stinger had done its full sixteen points of physical damage and twenty-one from my poison, Sneak Attack added an extra eleven points of damage bringing it up to forty-eight points of damage from a single strike.
I’d halved the centipede’s health in one strike. It reared back as I jumped out of its reach dodging a blind counterattack from its tail. Its pincer’s snapped out but it my poison was still effecting it the damage over time quickly eating away at it. The centipede spasmed then stiffened, falling to the ground, its legs curling inwards.
Level Up Poisoner! Poisoner Level 5, Skill Point gained!
You have killed a level 7 Monstrous Stone Centipede. 26 XP gained.
I frowned I should have gotten a lot more experience than that. Was I getting less experience after upgrading my race, I’d assumed the clover mites just gave crappy experience but what if since I was a higher tier creature or something the system was rewarding me less for these kills. It was probably to force me to go and face much tougher creatures that would provide more of a challenge but without a hive to back me up I couldn’t take those kinds of risks.
Sighing I resolved myself to long and slow grind. At least the experience for skill growth didn’t seem to be effected by my upgrade.
Looking down at the centipede I was again confronted with the question of whether to eat it or absorb it for a biomorph? I still had some biomorphs to unlock but I had the biomass to purchase them. I decided to purchase them first before absorbing anymore. I began consuming the corpse as I pulled up my biomorph menu.
Available Biomorphs: Pincers, Trophallaxis Stomach
Each biomorph cost me twenty-five biomass to activate. Pincers were fairly self-explanatory, but I wasn’t sure what a Trophallaxis Stomach was. It would only cost me fifty biomass total so I decided to just purchase them both and decide on investing more resources into them later.
There was a terrible itch and earing burn in the corner of my jaw as a knub began to grow. It split open and pushed out slowly. The pincers were on the outside of my face were my jawbone hinged. I pulled up the description for my new mutation to see what I was working with.
Pincers (common): Weapons or tools, capable of injecting venom from the poison sack and for assistance in chewing food or materials for construction.
Deals 2-7 piercing damage per hit plus poison damage if added. Damage is increased by the Pincer-fighter Skill. Benefits from brawn.
It wasn’t that impressive; I definitely wasn’t planning on sticking my face new to my prey to learn a new combat skill. I’d stick to my much more practical and useful stinger instead. I spend the next twenty-five biomass to unlock Trophallaxis Stomach to see what it did. A burning in my gut lasted for ten minutes leaving me doubled over and unable to eat while it lasted. Pulling up the description to see what this did I was greeted by something interesting.
Trophallaxis Stomach (rare): A secondary social stomach used for storing food when bringing it back to the hive. Nectar stored in this stomach will begin the process of being turned to honey.
Allows you to store up to 25% of your body weight in the Trophallaxis Stomach.
So, this was something that ants and bees had, very interesting. There was no skill or stat bonus applied to this mutation, to upgrade it I’d have to spend the biomass to continue its mutation path. I finished off the centipede leaving only its empty carapace and legs scattered across the ground.
88 biomass gained.
I looked down at the centipede remains. I reached down for its head and grabbed one of its pincers. After a great deal of struggling, I pulled it off, it was about the length and thickness of my stinger but curved instead of straight. I placed it in one my secondary hands and had it stab out experimentally. Yanking off the other pincer I armed my secondary set of limbs with pincer daggers. They wouldn’t deal poison damage, but a bit of extra physical damage wouldn’t go amiss.
Stepping up the eggs the centipede had been guarding I picked one up. It was about the size of my chest and weighed around thirty pounds. It wasn’t hard like a bird’s egg but had a more leathery feeling to it. My antenna tapped across it and told my senses that it was edible. I didn’t need food right now but this burrow could be a base for me if needed.
Before I went out hunting again I needed to upgrade a few of my skills.
Lasting Poison: Your poison can be applied to other weapons or put into a food source to poison your target without directly using your stinger.
Poisoned Weapons: Your skill with poisoned weapons lets you always deal the maximum possible damage with a melee poisoned weapon.
Venom Sniper: Your skill with launching your poison from afar lets you always deal the maximum possible damage with your poison.
The first option was probably for someone who used a weapon like a bow or maybe a spear and wanted to apply their stinger’s venom to their ammunition or the tip of their weapon. It wasn’t something I needed so I dismissed it. Poisoned Weapons and Venom Sniper were two sides of the same coin, one for ranged damage the other for weapon damage. I had to think about this, doing even more damage with my stinger would be good but Venom-sprayer only did poison damage instead of mix of it and physical so it would benefit more. I made my choice and selected Venom Sniper as my upgrade.
Poisoner (Uncommon) (Level 5): The power of your poison and the knowledge of how to best apply it increases with each kill you make; you specialize in ranged poison attacks.
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Your ranged poison attacks with your bio-weapons always do the maximum damage. Your poison damage and duration increase by .5 damage/seconds per skill rank. Benefits from Toughness.
I’d only leveled up one skill to level five, so it was time to leave. Exiting the tunnels, I entered back into the grass jungle. I crept through the shadowy foliage the sun high above only visible through the breaks in the grass and weeds that grew thick and close.
Spotting another centipede, I began to follow it. After seven minutes of tracking it, my antenna twitched. The centipede stopped and looked about. A dozen ants poured out from either side of the centipede. There were five workers, two scouts and seven workers in their assault force. The centipede fought back but the Soldier ants rushed forward blocking its pincers from attacking the much weaker worker ants. The scout ants moved in bit down with their pincers then retreated while the workers each grabbed a leg and pulled putting the centipede on the rack. The centipede had only been level six and didn’t stand a chance.
The scout ants began patrolling the area. One came across my trail and its antenna twitched frantically.
Enemy! Enemy! It said, it didn’t speak with words, but my pheromone gland let me translate the chemical signals it was sending. The other scout took off running and my blood went cold. They were going to send out scouting parties again like last time.
Well, it wasn’t going to go like last time had. I activated my Interceptor Pheromones I couldn’t keep them on all the time with the Focus cost of using them. The scout ant was tapping its antenna long my trail, I pressed myself into a thick clump of grass and waited. The scout walked right up to and past me without even turning as it followed my trail.
Striking as fast as a cobra my stinger took it through the head before it could let out off a pheromone alarm.
You have killed a level 5 Ant Scout Beast! 7 XP gained.
Level UP Sneak Attack! Sneak Attack Level 4!
The soldier ants were moving around the corpse of the centipede guarding it as the workers set to the job of butchering and consuming it. Dragging the scout’s body off I crept back towards them.
Level Up Stealth! Stealth Level 5, skill point gained!
Tapping my antenna on the ground I laid a signal of my own.
Danger! This Way! Retreating from the simple message I continued to leave it along the path. The soldier ant came across the message and stopped, I’d done my best to mimic the chemical signature of the scout ant and now was the time to see if it worked. The soldier ant turned and began to follow the trail I’d left for it.
You have learned to use trickery to fool your prey into doing what you desire. Skill gained, Deception!
Deception (Uncommon) (Level 1): You’re able to mislead others with your communications causing dissent and mistakes from others based on bad information.
Your communications resemble others, your lies have a 1% bonus per skill level to the believability of your communications. Benefits from Charisma.
Waiting in ambush on top of a wide leafed weed I waited until the soldier ant passed under me. It was only level six and had sixty health. I dropped from above and drove my stinger through its head killing it instantly.
You have killed a level 6 Ant Soldier Beast! 13 XP gained.
Level Up Stinger-Knight! Stinger-Knight Level 6!
The soldier ant was much larger and harder to move. Deciding to wait on this for now I placed my hand on it.
Would you like to absorb Dorylinae Formicidae Brutus for the cost of 7 XP and all the creatures Biomass?
Serrated Mandibles Unlocked! You now have access to the Serrated Mandibles mutation path! Error! Subject does not have Serrated Mandibles, ability disabled until mandibles are acquired.
Grimacing at the price I selected yes. My energy ravaged the soldier ant’s body leaving a pile of dust behind. Moving back to where the remaining soldier ants were, I repeated the trick again. Another soldier ant began following the trail. This one was a much higher level than the others.
Dorylinae Formicidae Brutus (Ant Soldier Beast); Level 12, Health: 180/180
I didn’t think my first strike would instantly kill it but this was the last ant I planned to kill from this group. Dropping down I drove my stinger into the back of its neck. My two secondary arms plunged their pincer daggers into the cracks of the ant’s carapace where its joints were. Its health dropped to half and the ant reared throwing me off its back.
You have learned to use the bioweapons of others as daggers. Skill Gained, Dagger-fighter.
The soldier ant turned, and its mandibles snapped at me as I barely rolled under the strike. Stabbing up into its thorax my stinger met resistance but my focus on armor penetration let it bypass the carapace and stab five inches deep delivering another dose of poison. My two pincer daggers stabbed out but they mostly just scratched against its carapace doing no real damage.
Rolling out from under the soldier ant it shuddered then collapsed to the ground. I retrieved the smaller body of the scout ant. Putting my shoulder under the soldier and I heaved it up onto my back. The soldier ant was the size of a small horse, and the scout ant was about the size of a pony. I staggered back to the centipede den, my antenna wagging the entire time as I covered up my trail.
You have killed a Level 12 Fire Soldier Ant Beast! 49 XP gained.
Dumping the two ant bodies into the den with the eggs, I returned out into jungle. I’d be dealing with ants for awhile now so I should find some way to even the odds. I was just one person against an entire colony, so I needed a way to make it seem as if I were in multiple places or to scatter and confuse them.
Looking around I surveyed my environment for something to help. I spotted a thistle plant and looked it over. The thistle needles were only eight inches long but they were nice and sharp. I started breaking them off at their base gathering and armful of them. I didn’t have any tools, but I used my pincers to cut through a blade of grass. Used my fingers and stinger to help split the grass in half then I started ripping into strips. I found a spring weed stem and began tying thistles along it. Jamming it into the base of a cluster of rocks I tied a grass cord to one end and pulled back drawing the thing back like a bow.
My attempt at a trap wasn’t complicated but figuring out the tripwire mechanism was. It took me over half an hour and dozens of failures and a few times where I nearly impaled myself on it before it was successful.
Moving along I constructed another. This one only took me twenty minutes. I kept going and after my tenth trap I was surprised by a notification from the system.
You have learned to create mechanisms to deal damage in place of weapons wielded by you. Skill gained, Trap-maker Level 1.
Why had unlocking this skill taken so long? Thinking it over I realized it was my other title that had been getting me so many skills, I had the Warrior title, if I’d chosen the Crafter title instead my first trap would have likely gotten me the Trap-maker skill. Traps might be one of the ways a crafting focused character got their XP.
I knew I wasn’t in a video game but thinking of myself and others as just characters and mobs did a lot to help keep me sane. I spread out from my location stripping the bottom half of the thistle bare as I took the material, I needed to create parts.
You have killed a Level 3 Monstrous Aphid! 2 XP gained.
Level Up Trap-maker! Trap-maker Level 2!
I guess one of my traps had gone off. It wasn’t an ant but every bit of experience was a bonus. I backtracked for a bit until I found the paid, it was about the size of clover mite and green ichor was dripping down from it as it hung suspended on my trap.
Taking down the mite I hid it away in my camp and kept working. More and more traps were made and my skill slowly began to grow. I branched out and spotted one of the scout ants as I was setting up a trap. Fading into the shadows I watched as it scuttled along the trail, its attentat tapped across one of the false pheromone trails I’d set, and it eagerly began to move along it.
The trap didn’t kill it, but the ant was pinned against the ground, and I could see its health bar over its head had been cut in half. I moved forward and rammed my stinger through it head. I quickly reset the trap and dragged the ant away masking my trail with my own pheromones.
You have killed a Level 8 Scout Ant Beast!
Level Up Trap-maker! Trap-maker Level 3!
Level Up Deception! Deception Level 2!
With my kill stored I headed back out. There wasn’t more time to set up traps, the ants were starting to comb through the forest, I could tell from how much my trap maker skill was gaining experience.
Level Up Trap-maker! Trap-maker Level 4!
A few more minutes passed again, and I got another notification.
Level Up Trap-maker! Trap-maker Level 5! Skill Point gained.
It was another ten minutes as I crept through the thick jungles of grass and weeds before I got another notification.
Level Up Trap-maker! Trap-maker Level 6!
I wasn’t a crafter so the ants must have been stumbling into every single trap I had to raise this skill this much. I hadn’t gotten any experience from kills, so I had to assume none of my traps had been lethal. I would have to change that personally. It was time to grind my combat skills, the ants had taken my wings and I was going to make sure they realized which of us was the real apex predator of the insect kingdom.