And so another day came.

Putting on the leather vest and the new clothes I obtained yesterday, I prepare to set out to the Sage’s hideout. According to the map he left behind, it won’t even take me one day walk from the village, if it were humans though they might have taken more time, perhaps three to five days. But since I’m not walking and hopping through trees instead, the speed is vastly superior. It’s even faster now that I’ve obtained a grasshopper’s jumping power.

Perhaps I should’ve rested for a few more days, but I can’t delay this any longer. I’ve been walking in the dark for too long. Now that I finally possess something that could possibly shed some light on my path, I want to get those information the Sage left behind even just one moment sooner.

My preparations are finished with the sound of the long sword sliding in the scabbard hanging by the leather belt on my waist.

It feels amazing, swords are a man’s romance after all.

With this, I’ve changed job from a ninja to a knight!

Pulling the sword out and then sheath it back in, I continue to make various poses.

Is this okay? Is it okay for me to look this cool?!

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

After a few hours of tree hopping, I arrived at the spot marked on the map. It’s about 40km from the village, the density and size of the trees get thicker the deeper I go.

Currently in front of me is a gigantic tree that looks to be about as big as a house. What is this weird tree... based on the shape it’s similar to the Baobab trees in Africa, but not quite. This is just my estimation but to make a closed circle around the tree’s trunk we’d probably need around 20-30 people holding hands. If the inside is hollow you could even live in it.

I get closer to the tree and try to knock at it’s body.

Hard.

This feeling is more like knocking on a rock rather than a tree.

According to the Sage I just need to speak the keyword here, and if I can’t speak the word, then carve the phrase on the tree’s bark is fine as well. With how hard this damn tree is though…this is going to take a while.

And so after one hour of laboring, I finished carving the words.

(If the cuckoo does not sing, kill it)

As soon as I finished carving, there’s a rumbling sound comes from within the tree. One spot on the tree starts to distort and form a human looking face that resembles an old man.

How fantasy-like…

“The trial shall commence” –Face

And so the face speaks in Japanese, then completely falls silent again.

Eh?

Just now, it said something really disturbing didn’t it.

I detect a presence from a kilometer away, something is rushing here with terrifying speed.

Wait, wait, wait.

Wait I say.

The thing that’s heading here is very, very bad.

Even though I don’t know what that thing is, my instinct is telling me that I need to get away from here as soon as possible. No… even if I run now it might be too late, that thing has already locked on to me.

Hey! Face! Don’t just speak whatever you like then go silence when you please!

I pinched and kicked the rock-hard face but it didn’t faze at all, it’s even harder than the tree.

I wasn’t told about this! Say something! Face!

With a “Bamm!!”, something fell on the ground nearby, making a small crater on the ground and behind the curtain of dust the figure of a three meter tall monster starts to show itself.

FAAAACCCCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE----------!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The monster that appeared before me was a giant mass of bulging muscles. Even though I call them muscles…there’s a strange metal shine on them as if they were coated in steel. It has a body that’s fairly humanoid, though with a more ape-like proportions, with the arms being longer than the legs. Its body is covered in several plates of hard shell, with the majority of them on its back. From the back shell there’s a horn protruding upward. There’re 4 jet black eyes on its head. And finally on its forehead grows a menacing horn that’s about as big as an elephant tusk. The horn shape greatly resembles a rhinoceros beetle horn.

 http%3a%2f%2fpre01.deviantart.net%2f9f92%2fth%2fpre%2f...a0x56a.jpg [http://pre01.deviantart.net/9f92/th/pre/i/2016/121/9/7/insectumchronica17_fix_by_amano_m-da0x56a.jpg]

No.No.No

No matter how you look at it that’s impossible to beat.

It’s so dangerous, it’s as if that thing is wearing some kind of ominous black aura around itself.

The pressure this monster is giving out is unlike anything I’ve experienced. Putting those puny panthers aside, not even the big monster that killed me, or the skilled warriors I fought gave me this kind of hair raising chill. Wasn’t this forest a place that only had weak monsters? What is something like that doing here?

Wait… perhaps the reason there are no monsters around the village’s vicinity is because that place is close to this thing’s turf? So that’s why no monsters went close to the village?

To think that village was being protected from monsters by being on a monster’s turf…how ironic.

What about Ari-chan then? Maybe it’s a monster that came from somewhere outside of the forest, or perhaps it was just an idiot.

If this monster was planted here as a guardian by the Sage then it must have lived for 700 years already. I’m quite amazed how nobody encountered it here. Or maybe they just didn’t live to tell the tale.

What’s up with that Nobumasa-san anyway, what kind of Sage are you? You’re just putting something so dangerous here as a “trial”? Who the hell do you think you are? I bet you just wanted to act cool didn’t you. “O hero who comes seek my treasures, prove thyself worthy” or some kind of dramatic theatrics like that. Please give me a break already. What gift? What loyalty? If I die and meet you on the other side of the world I’ll make sure to punch you in the face. 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Without minding my circumstances, the monster kicked the ground and closed the distance between us in an instant. Despite having such a massive body it’s incredibly agile, I was taken by surprise and barely managed to dodge its strike. The fist collided with the ground where I was a moment ago and made a small crater. Using my improved speed I took a 30 meters distance in a single step but I could feel the wind pressure from its punch even from this far away. That’s an absurd power it’s packing… if I was close then perhaps I would have been blown away by the blast of pressure.

Every single cell in my body is screaming at me warning me to run away. But even though I don’t want to take risks, I cannot afford to fall back here.

I have to get to that hideout at all cost.

Only now that I’m pitted against such obstacle do I realize how desperate I really was. I was blinded to the ways of the world, I was muted unable to speak human words, I was deaf to any form of conversations.

Even though I always joke around lightly, perhaps deep inside I was being truly cornered.

That’s why, only this I won’t give up on.

The monster kicked the ground again and covered the 30 meter distance in one step just as I did. This time it didn’t puts all power into one punch but instead throw out a flurry of punches and side sweeps using the spikes on its arms.

One really has to be amazed at how this supposedly big and heavy thing can dish out attacks that are even faster than the armored nii-san’s slashes. Normally the me who would have a hard time dodging that nii-san’s swings have no chance of matching this thing’s speed.

However, the me right now is different.

Since I suspected that the current state of my legs was caused by the grasshoppers I ate, I had been experimenting with other insects I caught. And as it turned out, my theory was right. It was not an enjoyable experience having to catch various insect and eating them however. Even as a monster I don’t enjoy eating those critters…unless they’re grilled grasshoppers.

Anyway, when I consume an insect’s carcass, it’s structure and traits are analyzed inside my body. I didn’t notice it before but after I managed to pull out the traits of grasshoppers, it’s like a lid has been lifted and I was able to understand the physiology of the insects I ate on an instinct level. Rather than the information being processed by my brain, it’s more like the information ingrained itself in my flesh. The process itself is more of an analysis and reproduction rather than assimilation, in simpler words I didn’t merge with the insect, I just copied it.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

There wasn’t many useful traits among the insects I managed to catch however, but there’re two major features that I found incredibly useful.

The first is the eye.

Compound Eyes  

One of the major traits that all insects have. The compound eye is made from hundreds to thousands of facets combined into something that looks like a beehive. In simple term it’s an eye that was constructed from thousands of smaller eyes, these small “eyes” are actually just cornea lens called the ommatidium.

A human eye, each one only has a single focal point. However, because the insect eye is comprised of thousands of eyes they respectively have thousands of focal points. While there’s a negative effect of the whole picture they see being blurry and not as detailed as a human eye, the insect eye is much more sensitive to movements. In other words compound eyes are much better at recognizing moving patterns.

To make it easy to imagine, does the term “went out of my sight” sounds familiar to you? For example your eyes were following a flying mosquito but it suddenly disappeared? It’s because the mosquito flew out of your eye’s focal point. With the insects however as long as something is within their sight, it won’t go out of focal points since it’ll just enter another focal point due to insects having thousands of small eyes. This is how insect manage the impressive feat of catching a prey or another insect mid-fly.

Thanks to these compound eyes now I’m able to dodge the deadly strikes from the beetle monster.

As for why I didn’t have them before despite grasshoppers also have compound eyes as an insect. It seems that eating them alive or fresh will give much better analyzing results compared to something that has been cooked, deformed or left for a long time.

The monster seemed to be frustrated at its attacks that are only hitting thin air. But to be honest I’m also treading on thin rope here. Even though I have the vision, it’s taking everything I have in this body just to dodge attacks coming with such speed. However Beetle-kun finally lost its patience and did a powerful horizontal swing hoping to throw me off with the wind pressure.

But, this is my chance.

I dodge the incoming swing by ducking low and tighten my grip on the ground to withstand the wind pressure. Then as I make a falling forward posture, my leg kicks the ground and I dive at the beetle’s vulnerable legs.

The technique the armored nii-san used against me.

Though my performance is not even close to that nii-san in term of technique perfection, it’s great to catch Beetle-kun off guard. I draw my sword from my waist and swing at the monster’s knee with all my power.

If your leg is chopped off then it doesn’t matter how much strength you have!

-Clang- 

There was a loud sound of metal against metal.

Hmm…

Wait, isn’t that weird?

Metal against metal? I was supposed to cut flesh using metal wasn’t I?

Taking a look at my sword….the blade part that made contact had a big part of the edge chipped off, while the blade itself is bending back, making a hook shape.

Even your flesh is hard too!!?

Not overlooking the opening in my guard after I attacked, Beetle-kun kicks me with its other leg.

“GuGIH!”

A groan escaped my mouth as all the air in my lungs and stomach get pushed out. At the same time, my body flew back 50 meters and bounced on the ground a couple of times before I crashed into a tree. There’s a crack on my stomach skin…or rather stomach shell, since it’s more similar to insect husk than human skin. Some gooey liquid is oozing out from the crack, it feels really disgusting.

Pain is permeating through my body…there must’ve been several ruptured organs…

Enduring the pain, I pick myself up by slowly rising while resting my back against the tree I crashed into. Looks like another one of those Baobab-like trees, had it been a normal tree it would probably break from the impact.

What absurd physical strength…

I had smeared a mixture of male panther’s paralysis poison and some other insect poison I found on my blade. Though it failed to cut through Beetle-kun properly there was a small chip on Beetle-kun skin and the poison should have taken effect in about now. But that thing is still as vigorous as ever…

Does it have some resistance against poison?

That’s too much of a cheat!

Seemingly a bit pissed off about the skin on its knee getting scratched, the monster stomped the ground angrily…

UUUuuuu… So it’s the kind that has a short fuse?

That’s quite dangerous in its own way.

The fact that I evoked the wrath of something that can smash me into bits easily is making my hips wanting to give out.

Scary.

Don’t come over here.

However, as expected, Beetle-kun is not paying any mind to my hopes. It’s looking full of killing intent, the muscle on its legs bulges and packs up power and is about to take a giant leap toward me…

…But it was abruptly stopped.

Beetle-kun seems to be tangled in countless white threads.

Darwin’s Bark Spider

A spider’s silk, when compare using a weight to strength basis is 5 times stronger than steel and as strong as Kevlar, the toughest man-made polymer which is used to make bullet proof vest. However even within the spider family, the Darwin’s Bark Spider’s thread is special as it is 10 times stronger than Kevlar. Yesterday I was able to find one spider with thread that has similar properties, though not exactly as strong.

I’m glad that my knowledge of animals and insects can be put to use even in this world. While there’re incomprehensible things like magic and monsters, a large part of nature is similar to Earth. Considering how there’re tomatoes and eggplants, plus grasshoppers that are no different from my world.

I was surprised when I managed to reproduce Darwin’s Bark Spider traits though. Since Spiders actually aren’t insects. They belong to the Arachnid family. Arachnids have 8 legs and no wings or antennae while insects have 6 legs and usually have wings. I wonder if it’s okay as long as it’s an Arthropod? If there’s one thing I’m sure of it’s that neither other mammal monsters nor humans would work.

This was the second card I was hiding.

I didn’t just evade his attacks by jumping around, I was planting my webs around.

Though even these webs won’t be able to hold it for long, looking at how much of a powerhouse this guy is.

But trapping him for a moment was enough.

I shake off the feeling of pain in my mind and gather up the power in my legs. Though full speed isn’t something that I can control freely, thanks to the compound eyes I’m now able to barely avoid crashing accidents at least.

This will be an all-out attack.

If slashes don’t work, then I’ll just to have to hit him with a blunt impact. Generally when you’re fighting an enemy donning full armor then one should avoid slashing and resort to either pierce through the gap or try to cause a concussion with a blunt attack.

Because I had internal injury it took a bit longer to gather my strength, but normally if I was a human then I’d be dead by this point already so I can’t complain.

I kick the ground and raise a cloud of dust behind me as my body shoots toward the monster, tearing the air apart. Beetle-kun seems to be flustered the first time since it appeared and struggles harder to break free from the web but he could not make it in time.

The moment my feet lands on his chest, a thunderous sound as if the air exploded break out from the impact and shake Beetle-kun body violently. His massive body of muscles is sent sliding backward making tire tracks on the ground as he coughs up some muddy liquids.

And the next moment

Once again, my body flew.

“Guh!”

I fell on the ground and rolled a couple of times before stopping. The damaged organs inside me have received even more damage. A pain so intense it numbs my mind, threatening to have my body falls apart.

While trying to regulate my ragged breaths, I recall what just happened…

I.. got hit by an arm sweep?...

My leather vest has been torn up, perhaps it was due to the sharp spikes on the monster’s arm. If I didn’t have elf nee-san’s chainmail vest with me my chest would have been opened right now. The impact was not as strong as when it kicked me… looking at Beetle-kun he seems to be staggering a bit. Did my kick have some effect after all?

Still… to be so lively even after he received an attack with my full power that I didn’t even have a good control of… Just what the hell is he made of anyway!?

Beetle-kun recovered shortly, shook his head and looked my way menacingly. White foams bubble on the side of his mouth as he grits his teeth in anger.

Scary!

I’ve used up all my cards already! Don’t be so unreasonable!

Even though I’ve executed all my plans perfectly with my life on the line you still barely took any damage? Hey Nobumasa-san just what was going on in your brain when you made this thing? This isn’t a trial anymore you know. It’s just mean! This is flat out bully!