By the time I awoke, it was already morning. I was no longer leaning against the piece of grass, I seem to have fallen down onto the ground in my sleep. The beaten and battered corpse of an ant lay in front of me, more than half of its head turned to pulp.

After a quick check of my status, I realized that my health regeneration had restored me back to peak health while I slept. My left arm also seemed to be firmly reattached, thank the goddess for that, regeneration seems to be a fantastic stat. Even at night I could fill my entire health pool in little over an hour, less than half that time during the day thanks to my photosynthesis skill.

'Maybe my health is just really low? I did almost get killed by an ant yesterday.'

I looked again towards the mashed up corpse of the ant. Wondering what I could get for eating it, I pried one of the legs off of its body with a grunt.

Let's be honest here, this looks absolutely disgusting.

It was a black segmented leg longer even than one of my own legs, but spindly and covered in carapace. There was a small amount of flesh left on the end that was broken off from the body.

'I ate rocks yesterday, how bad could it be' I thought to myself.

I gingerly place the center section of the leg in my mouth before closing my eyes and viciously biting down on it. Carapace crunched in my mouth with a taste similar to the stones from yesterday, after biting through to the insides it actually surprisingly tasted like chicken.

'Everything always tastes like chicken.' I chuckled.

'Weak worker ant' has been ingested

Due to the Glutton skill, you have gained 1 strength and 1 vitality

I make a fist, I can slightly feel the increase in strength, and my hitpoints have gone up as well. Vitality might have an impact on defence as well, but I don't really want to start hitting myself to find out.

'Nice, 2 stat points for eating a leg. What can I get from the rest of it'

I realized halfway through eating the giant ant, that not only can I eat more than my current body size, but the stat point gain seems to drop significantly as I continue to eat.

I still managed to gain an additional 2 points of strength and 1 point of vitality, however.

'Maybe its because the ant is weaker than I am now.'

Due to a special action, your Wisdom has increased by 1

I sighed at that, realizing that I must have been right again.

I gave up on finishing the rest of the ant seeing as how the gains had basically stopped.

'Alright, time to test out these new stats.'

I walked over to a stalk of grass, pulled back my fist, and let fly with all my newfound strength.

The grass bent slightly, then swung back and hit me right in the face, knocking me over and taking 3 of my health with it.

"pffft ahahahahaaaa haa haa, alright grass, let's try this again." I chuckled softly while rubbing my head. 

I stood back up walk over to the stalk of grass and punched it again, this time far more lightly, it swayed back towards me but this time I shifted out of the way. I slowly picked up the pace, gradually putting more strength into my swings and dodging the repeated strikes of my greatest enemy. Eventually, the roots gave out and the grass simply fell over backwards while I raised my stony fists in triumph!

Due to a special action, your Dexterity has increased by 1

'Nice, my first dexterity point.' 

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The changes to my body were immediately apparent, my arms became a little more supple, my joints worked a little better. My body as a whole just felt better, like I had just taken weights off my arms and legs. The sudden changes caused me to shudder a little bit in joy.

'How did I even manage to move before, it feels like my whole body was just rebuilt.' I thought to myself, realizing just how lucky I was to get into a fight with an ant on my first day instead of something far more dangerous, like that enormous filthy rat. 

'I guess that single point of dexterity makes a huge difference if you had absolutely none before.'

'Okay, now that I finally have a moment to think, I should really work on my living situation.' I don't really need to secure food as I could easily eat dirt if I had to. This body doesn't seem to need water, seeing as I haven't had a drink since I got here and I don't feel thirsty at all. The last thing on the list would be shelter. 

'I slept under the stars last night, more by necessity than by choice, as I passed out. I can't guarantee something won't eat me in my sleep, or just step on me for that matter.'

'Haaaa, I should probably find someplace to use as a base until I can either find or create a permanent residence.'

That settled I stood up, picked a random direction, and just started walking. Paying attention to my surroundings and hoping nothing jumped out at me for once, I advanced into the forest of grass. 

Several hours of boring walking and eating every fist-sized stone I managed to come across. I had managed to grow barely tall enough to see through the top of the grass if I stood on my tip-toes. What I saw when I looked around was breathtaking. Huge trees that must be almost a hundred meters tall were sparsely growing everywhere. Massive canopies of bright green leaves covered most of the sky around them, casting the world below them into darkness. Small birds and insects flew in between the trees, painting a beautiful scene. At least right up until the point where I saw a vine skewer a bird midair and drag it back screaming into the gaping maw of a pink flower with teeth. The bird's screeching was instantly cutoff as the teeth clamped shut crushing it into a mess of bones, feathers and blood.

'Right, not a normal forest, monsters are real in this world.' I thought as I shuddered. 

Looking slightly off to my right, away from the gruesome sight of the mangled bird, I saw a large snow-capped mountain sparsely dotted with much smaller trees. I decided that if I found a cave to set up in, the mountain should serve as a good landmark to find my way back while exploring the forest. 

After several more hours of carefully proceeding through the forest, eating the stones which are growing in size the nearer I get to the mountain, I am a full head and shoulders taller than the grass, almost half a meter tall. Of course, my now longer legs help me in traversing the forest, my increased size does, however, make me a larger target for dangerous creatures. Thankfully almost everything seems disinterested in eating me. I nearly stumbled right into one of the creepy vine-flowers when I tripped over a tree root, however, it just hissed at me threateningly while I backed away from it.

'I guess they don't find rocks terribly appetizing.' 

As I finally emerged from the forest and got a good look at the mountain, I saw that it was nearly barren of plant life save for the occasional small tree growing in the cracks. Huge precipitous cliffs, sharp jagged rocks sticking out everywhere.

'It's perfect.' I thought with a small smile. It should be relatively free of predators seeing as how there are no food sources in the area, or at least that was my hope.

As I neared the mountain, I heard running water. There was a small stream coming out of a cave at the mountain's base. The cave entrance was barely taller than I was, making it ideal for a temporary place of residence. I carefully waded through the stream into the entrance of the cave, listening for breathing sounds as I did, but thankfully I heard none.

There is a small platform beside the riverbank just inside the cave's entrance, just barely still lit by the dimming late afternoon sun outside. The platform is roughly hewn out of the stone, about 2 square meters all in all. More than enough room for my small frame. There don't seem to be any tunnels leading from this platform into the mountain except for small tunnel the river formed in both directions.

Feeling far safer in my cozy new home, I drifted off to sleep to the sound of the stream echoing off the walls of the cavern.

Name Raak Race Earth Elemental Str 4 Vit 4 Dex 1 Int 2 Wis 5 Hp 60 Mp 60

Skill List - Passive Level Glutton 1(MAX) Crystal Core 1(MAX) Novice Photosynthesis 1 Novice Hand to Hand Fighting 1