Munch munch. Chomp chomp. Gobble gobble. Gulp.

Delicious. That bacony, pork rind flavor would always be one of his favorites in this world, Adon was rapidly coming to believe. And it tasted especially good when that flavor was saving him from starvation.

The latest batch of ants was all gone. Thank the Goddess they were so predictable. As long as the scent trail remained in place, they kept trying to follow it back to the Ladybug Larva corpse. And as long as Adon made sure to keep moving forward, slightly closer to the ant colony each time he spun his web, the ants were too far away from where the last group had died to smell their death secretions.

There was a lot of risk in this plan, of course.

The ants could go around him. Adon’s sense of smell wasn’t as sensitive as the ants, so he was trying to track their scent trail based on his memory of which way the colony was at this point. He could end up getting too close to the colony and be seen munching ants. Or one of the ants he was trying to trap could get away and warn the colony.

Any of these possibilities would undoubtedly end in a rerun of Adon being chased by the ants’ best sentries, which he was keen to avoid.

But so far, everything was going according to plan. Sort of.

He hadn’t been attacked by any ants so far, unless you counted the soon-to-be-dead ants unleashing their horrible vinegar seasoning smell—and at this point, that was barely an irritant. He was definitely developing some kind of natural resistance to it, as well as getting better at avoiding getting it in his sensitive antennae.

Unfortunately, he also had to consume his web and spin a new one every time he needed to move his trap. That took Biomass. And his regeneration was consuming some of his energy too. Plus, ants were rather small. At least the little scouts that came to retrieve food were. The net result was that he wasn’t gaining much Biomass as he went along.

He had continued to slowly tick up in Evolution Points, and his leg was growing back more quickly since he was getting food, but the progress felt agonizingly slow. He was far from getting full. Far from getting the size increase he was hoping for, which he strongly suspected would occur every time he filled his Biomass past capacity.

There has to be a better way, he thought. There’s too much risk in continuing to get closer to the ant colony—and far from enough reward. Come on, Adon. You’re literally the smartest predator in this garden. You have to be, since you have human intelligence and memories! How do you solve this problem?

Well, first things first. If he was worried about getting too close to the ant colony, it was time to pick up and walk in another direction. He began eating his web once more.

Yummy, spaghetti with no sauce or seasoning again, he thought.

Then he started to walk away from the direction he’d been moving in, back toward the pieces of Ladybug Larva.

His mind was on hunting methods. He’d tried trapping. That had worked decently well, but it also consumed a fair amount of Biomass. More than simply using his silk as a projectile weapon did. He might be better off going out and hunting prey, then using silk to blind it and bind it, rather than making traps. That had worked fairly well against an enemy that was bigger, stronger, and tougher than he was.

Maybe he needed that more aggressive approach. He didn’t have any way of luring prey into a trap, besides what he’d tried already: using the corpse of a dead enemy as bait. That wasn’t a sustainable tactic. Unlike Goldie, whose web he was fairly certain actually had some capacity to lure insects—there had to be some reason why it looked so pretty to his eyes—Adon was certain his web was fairly drab and ugly.

As he had that thought, he walked past the Ladybug Larva and kept going. It would be best to get slightly further from the ant colony. He didn’t want to hang around and see if they noticed the smell of death where their fellow ants used to be.

Alright, if I’m going to try being a hunter, what else should I invest in to be more successful at that?

He had to think about how to spend these Evolution Points to best increase his odds of catching and killing prey.

The last fight with the Ladybug Larva was instructive to some degree. It showed how limited his arsenal really was. His mandibles, right after he chose not to upgrade them, proved unable to penetrate the enemy’s armor.

So maybe I should try Bladed Mandibles I, Piercing Mandibles I, or Crushing Mandibles I. He had just enough Evolution Points to buy one of those right now. Venom Spores I and Sleep Spores I were still out of his price range. Even if they weren’t too expensive, they’re probably not the solution to my current problem. I mean, wouldn’t it be just hilariously ironic if I used those spores, killed or knocked out my enemy—and then couldn’t bite into them at all?

Adon shook his head.

And there was one more thing. It was time to stop ignoring his eyes. His vision was a real problem. He still couldn’t see worth a damn.

Adon walked past a plant, almost brushing close enough to touch it. And something about it seemed weird.

Wait a second. He turned his head to look at the plant—and the leaves came to life!

A leafy shape lunged at him from what would have been his blind spot had he not just turned his head.

Holy crap! Adon had a fraction of a second to react. He couldn’t dodge this. Acting on pure instinctual fear, he stuck all his spines out as quickly as he could, pointing as many as possible at the offending plant-thing.

Then he felt impact. A heavy weight landed right on his spines.

The spines impaled whatever this thing was, and Adon had a moment to be grateful.

Thank you, Goddess—

Then the monster made a horrible brrrr sound, and Adon screamed inside his own mind.

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Brrr! Brrr brrr! Adon twitched and writhed involuntarily in response to the sound.

The closest analogy to the sound the creature was making from Adon’s old world would be a chainsaw. If someone turned on and revved a chainsaw repeatedly, right in your face, with no hearing protection.

Argh! Stop it, damn it. Ahh! The sound seemed to drill into his mind.

What the hell was that? He tried to turn his head to get a better look at the horrible creature, but he couldn’t turn his head enough to take in the full picture of what it was doing. The noise was coming from some sort of vibration of the body. He could feel that much through his spines.

But why it would make such a horrendous noise, he couldn’t easily tell. What he thought he did understand is that he and the creature were at a sort of impasse. It had attacked him perfectly from his blind spot. By pure chance, he was actually looking in its direction and managed to react in time—even though the creature hadn’t presented itself to him as anything but a leaf at the time. In fact, it still looked like a leaf.

Now that they were entangled, Adon could neither run away nor attack further. He could barely move with the heavier creature stuck onto him by his spines. But he thought the monster had the same problem, or perhaps worse.

The only reason to use this strange noise-based attack was that it couldn’t easily kill him. How could it, when its body was stuck a few centimeters away, impaled on Adon’s long spines? So it was trying to keep him from attacking with that painful sound. That was all he could think.

Then the monster managed to push off a nearby plant—and move forward. Closer to Adon.

Holy shit. What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck.

The creature had impaled itself further on Adon’s spines, apparently just to try and get its head closer to his body. As he stared helplessly at it, it snapped its mandibles angrily, as if eager for his flesh even as its internal fluids coated Adon’s spines.

It’s so determined to eat me, it’s not worried about dying in the process, he thought. What kind of—I’m starting to think I don’t have what it takes for this world.

An instant later, he was angry at himself. Stop whining! he yelled into his own mind. Not while this thing’s trying to eat you! You don’t have what it takes to survive with that attitude. Focus, damn it! First, understand the problem.

Identify!

Leafy Bush Cricket (Male)

Well, that doesn’t actually help much. I already know it’s camouflaged to look like a leaf. It looked like that even now that he could tell it was an insect. Just a couple of leaves with skinny legs attached. They could easily have been twigs.

The thing made the terrible brrr brrr sound again, and Adon had to fight his body’s impulse to writhe in response. The creature wanted to get closer, and it was using its sound attack to help that.

I can’t let him get any leverage. Have to keep him from kicking off anything.

If the Leafy Bush Cricket could push hard enough off the nearby surfaces, it would be able to impale itself further on the spines—like a lunatic—and more importantly, it could sink its terrible mandibles into Adon’s body.

The only positives were that the cricket was already impaled, so it was probably slowly taking damage right now, and its mandibles didn’t look any more impressive than Adon’s were. If it came down to a straight fight, it would have the size advantage, but at least Adon’s bite was as good as the creature’s.

As he examined his situation more analytically, Adon felt tiny probes touch his head and body. The monster was using its long antennae to poke at him, trying for the same effect it had attempted with its sound attack. Fortunately, the antennae weren’t nearly as unpleasant as that noise.

I just have to keep holding it in place, he thought. Just have to keep holding the cricket impaled on my spines, off the ground, not touching any surfaces. It’s a war of attrition. Will I tire out first, or will my venom kill him or my spines puncture an important organ first?

He just had to be disciplined. And that thought seemed to unlock something in him.

The creature launched another brrr brrr sound attack, but Adon gritted his mandibles and held steady. A terrible resolve steadied his weak, squishy caterpillar body.

You attacked me, buddy, Adon thought. Remember that when you die!

He might never be a creature to be feared in this monstrous jungle. But he would always make sure that he gave as good as he got. It was like the mantra he kept reciting. He had already decided he wouldn’t waste this life. If some jerk bug wanted to take his life from him, he would make them choke on it. Wasn’t that one of the implicit ideas behind getting venomous spines in the first place?

It had probably been more about being able to be more distant from enemies than venomous fangs would allow—but Adon preferred the more heroic interpretation for the moment.

The Leafy Bush Cricket writhed and thrust its body and launched its sound attack again. But it seemed just a tad bit weaker this time.

Was that just me? Or is he starting to tire out? Is my venom starting to work?

The feeble attack redoubled Adon’s resolve.

He stayed firmly in place despite several more such loud attacks, patiently bearing the cricket’s weight on his spines.

Several minutes went by like this. The cricket’s sound didn’t exactly get consistently weaker. It would vary from attack to attack. Sometimes it was weaker. Other times, it seemed to draw on a desperate energy from deep inside the cricket’s body, and it was even stronger.

The overall trend was only going one way, though. The monster was undeniably weakening—and therefore must be in the process of dying. The battle of attrition was coming to an end. Adon’s venom was winning over the bulkier, noisy creature.

In the space between intensely fearing for his life and cementing the victory, Adon had time to develop a modicum of respect for the Leafy Bush Cricket.

It could’ve been either one of us, he thought. I really didn’t think it would be me coming out on top, honestly. I’m glad it was, but well—you fought well. I guess that’s all I have to say. All I wish I could say. I feel like this meal will be really well earned.

And he intended to enjoy eating the cricket, once it finally stopped moving for good. It wasn’t releasing any of those odors or chemical agents that both ants and the Ladybug Larva had done, so Adon was pretty sure it wasn’t poisonous.

It should’ve been obvious to me that the ladybug probably would be, in retrospect, he thought. Adult ladybugs are so brightly colored. Nature’s warning sign for poison.

This creature had clearly invested its Evolution Points in camouflage, plus whatever that awful sound attack was. That was why it had looked so convincing playing the part of a leaf.

Note to self, though, Adon thought. Don’t bother with camouflage. At least not unless you can afford something better than the normal option. Looking like a plant is only useful until you have to move.

He was pretty sure there was some kind of Color Change Adaptation, but he’d ignored it because it was way too expensive.

Brrr brrr! The creature let loose its horrid noise right in Adon’s face once more.

It frazzled his nerves, but he didn’t let the sound budge him.

A few seconds later, the Leafy Bush Cricket stopped moving.

I think I won, Adon thought, slightly stunned. I think I did it!

As he had that thought, he felt a large shadow block the sun overhead.