Adon’s mind wandered as he lay in pain in his shallow hole.
Is this going to be the end of me? He felt he’d only just begun to discover the new world that he’d been born into. To die on only his second day of this new life—even for an insect, that felt far too short!
But the stabbing pain in Adon’s guts told him he very well might die. Expelling the contents of his stomach had alleviated, but not cured, his suffering. He was still poisoned. He drifted in and out of consciousness. He kept trying to think of what he should have done differently, but his mind would wander off the point and then drift into insensibility again.
In one of Adon’s more lucid moments, when the stabbing pain wouldn’t let him sleep, he opened the Evolution Store. He had fifteen points stored away from eating all of those Ladybug Eggs and defeating the Ladybug Larva. It seemed remarkably few for all the effort that had cost him. But maybe he’d been deducted some for eating something poisonous. Hard to say. He didn’t know if that was possible, but he hadn’t checked until now.
In the Evolution Store, Adon searched for anything related to healing. He’d wanted to improve his vision before the Ladybug Larva messed him up so badly, but that would obviously have to wait. Instead, he bought Weak Regeneration I and then Weak Regeneration II. And he made a note to get Poison Resistance I as soon as possible.
Most of the time, he was simply blessedly out of it. Some part of his brain that wasn’t inactive when he was asleep went completely dormant. The world turned to a black void.
He was awakened some hours into this comatose state by his body’s natural instinct for self-preservation. There was some movement above him, and it seemed like a potential threat. As he saw it, he adjusted his body slightly so that he could see if there was anything standing directly outside of his hole.
But there was nothing there. It took a few seconds of listening before he pegged the position of the small creatures that were moving outside.
Oh, whatever these things are, they’re going for the ladybug. Good luck with that!
As soon as he was fairly certain the intruders were just paying attention to the Ladybug Larva and not himself, Adon assessed his own condition.
I actually feel not so bad, he thought. Moving around a little, as he just had done, didn’t cause him to feel much soreness. There was a strange itch on his left front side. When Adon looked down, he realized that his lost leg had started to regrow. There was just a nub of a limb there right now, but the itchiness felt like a promise of more development to come.
Maybe I’ll be okay after all, he thought, filled with sudden optimism. It had been pretty horrifying to think of going through life with a limb missing. If my leg grows back, I can—
His stomach growled loudly.
Adon realized he was running on empty. He checked his Biomass, and it was down to 2.
Darn. I need to get moving before my Health starts dropping. He took a moment to be grateful that he was still alive. Thank you, Goddess, for sparing me from death by ladybug poisoning. And I also appreciate that my Weak Regeneration II is somehow strong enough to regrow a limb! Please give the Ladybug Larva a kick from me when you see it, though. That guy was a total jerk. Definitely deserved to be crushed under a rock.
He waited until he heard the sound of the creatures outside growing more distant before he stepped out into the light of day. He saw the Ladybug Larva corpse, or what was left of it, before he noticed anything else.
Wow. The scavengers had dismembered the body like professional butchers. Half of it was gone. There was a visible line in the remains where almost exactly fifty percent had been neatly cut away.
Adon looked after the scavengers and saw what he should have expected to see: ants. Just a handful of them, which he felt certain was why they were only taking half right now. Each one carried a piece of the Ladybug Larva larger than itself. And one of them was leaving a trail that Adon could smell. It was lighter, thinner this time than last time he’d encountered it, but it was unmistakably their food odor.
He imagined it was being sprayed more sparingly to reflect that there wasn’t much food left; they had already taken half. Probably the ants just wanted to make sure they remembered the way back to get the rest.
Hey, that was supposed to be mine, he grumbled to himself. Even if he couldn’t actually eat the body, it irritated him a bit that the ants that had harassed him before got to walk off with it.
Wait, can they even digest that poison? Adon wondered. Maybe those ants were going to get a nasty surprise. Then he shook his head. Who cares? I need to decide whether to eat them when they come back. The last time he preyed upon ants, he’d bought himself a lot of trouble when one got away and sounded the alarm. Then he became the prey, and he only survived the colony’s wrath because they ran straight into the spider’s web.
He couldn’t rely on that kind of luck again. Or could he? Should that be his plan in case he attracted the wrath of the rest of their army?
Adon shook his head. Maybe that can be a backup plan. There’s no reason to assume I can outrun them after eating just a handful of ants, when I’m currently almost on an empty stomach. As he had that thought, his stomach rumbled loudly, and his insides felt uncomfortably more hollow than they had a moment before.
He opened his Status. His Biomass was at 1 now. Okay, no choice. I’m eating those little guys when they come back.
But he could at least take some precautions to try and keep them from going for backup.
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He turned back to the Ladybug Larva corpse. That was what they were coming back for. So that was where he would lay his trap.
Mindful of his nearly fully expended Biomass resources, Adon began crafting the thinnest silk thread he could. He used his Silk Spinner to make a latticework pattern of thin threads crisscrossing the half body of the Ladybug Larva and the surrounding stones. A trap designed to entangle anything that stumbled into it.
He didn’t stop until he had no choice. The silk stopped coming out, and the chamber inside him that produced it felt slightly sore and empty. And his stomach felt emptier still.
Adon checked his Biomass as the sound of his rumbling stomach echoed through his body.
It had dropped to nothing.
Alright. That’ll have to be good enough, then, he thought, trying to keep a positive frame of mind. He was only facing starvation if the ants decided not to come back. No big deal, right?
He dragged himself back into his hole with small, minimal movements. He was resolved to keep his activity to a minimum now that his Biomass was at 0. He knew that if he didn’t, his Health would start to decline.
Adon lay in wait, and he hoped.
—
Princess Rosslyn waited for her latest suitor to appear, but without much hope.
The last one had been an obvious fortune hunter. He had entered the star room and been unable to keep himself from looking around excitedly at the gold and silver decorations. As if he was appraising the palace treasures for auction.
At least this one cannot be any worse, she thought.
Then he appeared.
The table was set for tea. The door to the star room opened. The herald stood just out of view, holding the door open with his body, and announced the suitor’s arrival.
“Your Highness, announcing the second son of Count Gerbel, Sir Kylen Gerbel of Luxen.”
The man stepped through the door, and Princess Rosslyn rose from her seat to greet him properly and look at him eye to eye.
“Sir Kylen, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” she said.
“The supreme pleasure is surely mine, Princess,” he replied in an affected drawl.
She extended her hand, and he kissed it primly. Then he waited for her to sit. She did, and he promptly took the chair across from hers.
So far, all was going well enough. He had observed courtly manners correctly. He was dressed appropriately. To the extent that physical appearances mattered, he was pretty enough. Perhaps a little too pretty, actually. This knight wore his hair almost to his shoulders, and his face was a bit smoother than she would expect of a warrior. And the clothes he wore were almost as fine as hers. A green velvet doublet and matching breeches. Several rings on his fingers.
No, no. Stop judging him based on appearances, she told herself. Even if he does not look the part of a strong fighter, he might be one. A fighter was what she needed in a partner, to best serve her kingdom.
“I hope the journey from Luxen was a pleasant one,” she began. Luxen was a part of the interior of Claustria, further from the border with the Demon Empire than the palace at Wayn. The frequent tendency of nobles who lived closer to the frontier was to think of those interior-dwellers as soft and pampered. Rosslyn was subject to the same prejudice herself, she knew. But she hoped Sir Kylen would disabuse her of it.
“It was full of excitement, Princess,” Sir Kylen replied eagerly.
“Oh? Tell me about your travels, then.” What sort of excitement could you experience on a trip between here and Luxen?
“You will undoubtedly have seen my entourage, or at least heard the sound of them,” Sir Kylen said.
She simply nodded. Even the second son of the Count of Luxen traveled with a heavy guard. Dozens of knights. A pair of mages. They were ready for any threat short of an army.
“Well, I never go anywhere without being well guarded, and on this occasion, it came in handy. Undoubtedly, you are aware that dungeons across the continent have become active once more, coinciding as usual with increased activity in the Demon Empire.” Rosslyn was not aware of this. Her education had only touched on dungeons lightly. But she let Sir Kylen keep talking. Hopefully he would tell her more new information. “We were able to delve into a dungeon just a dozen miles from your beautiful city. It was full of fascinating creatures! The knights escorted me as far down as the third floor. They wanted to leave sooner, but I insisted that we explore as far as we could. I would not pass such a place without doing a bit of sightseeing.”
Rosslyn fought the impulse to raise an eyebrow. Was he saying that he deliberately led his knights into a dangerous place like a dungeon, just so that he could have a look around?
“Most interesting,” she said after a short pause. “Please tell me more of your experience.” She leaned in, all eagerness.
“Well, on the first floor, I recall there were some creatures that my father’s steward named as kobolds and goblins.” Rosslyn nodded. She knew what those were. “We chopped some of those up, but just as many as needed to get down to the second floor. We were not planning to actually clear the dungeon, you understand.” He said those last words apologetically.
Rosslyn recalled from her education that dungeons were a dangerous nuisance, their monsters occasionally escaping to the surface and attacking peasants. It was the duty of local nobility to purge them of their monsters and destroy the dungeon core, but with Sir Kylen’s knights, he probably could have delved much deeper than he had. Depending on the dungeon’s depth and age, perhaps he could have defeated it himself and saved Rosslyn’s region some future trouble.
“On the second floor, we saw some strixes,” he continued. “They are these horrible predatory birds that eat human flesh and blood. Those were the main monsters of that floor, and there was also a boss creature: a hippogriff. The mages and a few of the knights distracted the hippogriff while I, Sir Calloway—that is the steward’s name—and my personal guards descended to the third floor. The monsters there were fewer in number, but still quite troublesome. Fire-breathing black dogs. We explored there for a little while until the mages managed to get a messenger down to us to tell us that they would not be able to hold off the hippogriff much longer. Demanding that I return.” He sounded faintly outraged. “So we left.”
“Why did they not slay the hippogriff?” Rosslyn asked.
“Oh, I think they said something about elemental resistances. My two mages are specialists of fire and lightning respectively, and I suppose neither had the right element for the job. Of course, we made certain to report the dungeon’s appearance to the local authorities. I do not know if they will find someone to clear it easily. My father’s steward said that with a dungeon like that, he would expect it to be at least eight floors.”
“A fascinating story,” Rosslyn said slowly. She was processing. On the one hand, it was genuinely very interesting to hear about the return of active dungeons in Claustria—and undoubtedly across the continent. On the other hand, the narrative raised a number of questions about her suitor’s judgment and consideration for his men.
Where do I even start? she thought, looking at the knight for a long moment with a calculated, unreadable expression on her face.
“Why exactly did you decide to enter the dungeon in the first place?” she finally asked, keeping her tone carefully neutral.