( Same day as the discovery of the Stomach Lurker.)
Meifeng had been going through the forest for almost a day now, and she persevered. She made haste atop the web of tree branches leading towards where she saw the smoke. She rushed for what she could, hoping that it might have been a ranger from out of the village. That hope was dashed when she saw the smoke rise again from the same place, they must be stranded. Why they didn't just climb the trees like any other elf, she didn't know. It's not like it'd be hard for anyone given their hollow bones.
That wasn't her matter though, maybe they had been badly wounded by a Tuskore and were stuck on the ground. How someone would escape a Tuskore when wounded she didn't know, but by the smoke, they must have. That, or perhaps they managed to use their bow in time to shoot it, but before it died it got off a hit.
Regardless, she had to keep forging on atop the treelines, to find the camp and get them back to shelter soon. They must be miserable, hopefully, she would find them quickly enough. She had brought two and a half months of provisions, so she should have time to reach them, given they were about a month away, then they could split the provisions on the way back.
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(Just after eating the maggot-larvae and resting.)
Tim woke up after a long rest, only seeing that it was day by the slight amounts of light shining through the small gaps in the otherwise tightly packed roots. Again, hunger struck his entire being. He felt near starved, and it seemed the maggot-larvae had left anywhere he could reach.
He simply lay there, keenly aware of the tip-tapping against the sides of his stomach, making the Lurker's presence ever so known. After ten minutes, the Scavaero started resting on top of him. Sadly, he knew he simply wasn't quick enough to catch any, even if he tried.
He remained like this, hungry without so much as maggot-larvae to eat, for what felt like hours on end. Hours did pass, the only sign of it being the tip-tap of the Lurker's legs, the movement of the Scavaero, and the little light slowly passing by through the cracks of the roots.
After hours like this, the roots above shot down again, this time causing another boar to fall down, this one had more iron gray tusks than the others and a generally bulkier build it seemed. As soon as he saw it fall, Tim took his chance, rushing it with the very first boar's tusk and stabbing it directly through the neck. It provided some resistance but wasn't able to wound Tim, even in his current state.
After it died, Tim, his hunger consuming him, began to furiously tear into the boar, using the tusk to rip out chunks of meat where he could and eating them as soon as he could. The raw hunger he felt was insurmountable and agonizing. He kept this up, his mind too clouded to care about how it was raw, how it tasted rather bad this way, the pieces of skin that occasionally found their way among his meal, or the now drying blood all around his mouth and on his hands.
He ate until he could eat absolutely no more, no matter if he wanted to. After the large meal, only a fifth of the boar remained. Removing the skeleton and separating the remaining meat and hide, he held the meat in the hide and kept the hide closed, remaining vigilant in assuring no maggot-larvae or Scavaero could have any of the meat.
Hours passed, and he felt hunger again, so he opened the bloody hide, and ate the rest of the meat, caring nothing for any form of delicateness or manner. Time passed on, flowing like a raging river as though Tim had never existed, did not currently exist, and never would. In time, Tim felt a tiredness creep over him, as well a bone shivering cold. Putting the skin over himself, or as much as could fit, he lay down and slept.
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As Meifeng continued her travels towards where the campsite was, Tim would continue to barely survive off of the few Tuskore that fell down into the same trap as him, as well as the maggot-larvae that would occasionally attempt to steal his meat, his food. For the sake of avoiding others feeling the same wretched monotonous cruelty of those weeks, I shall summarize the Important parts of the three weeks.
Tim had a slowly growing collection of Tuskore pelts. Over the month, he managed to kill twenty of them, twelve copper tusked boars, six iron tusked boars, and two new boars with golden tusks. They were what he sustained himself on, and he had meals of maggots between the times the boars fell down. They all tasted the same raw.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Meifeng had reached Tim's camp and looked around from above. Seeing the fire pit and the boar hide she said out loud, "Someone was definitely here, but there's been no smoke since those first days. I hope they're okay."
Noticing tracks, she set out to follow them atop the trees, getting ever closer to Tim. She rushed her footsteps, even leaving the provisions atop a tree near the camp.
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Tim sat, in the dim light again. His stomach rumbled, and he felt the taps of the stomach lurker again as well. Getting up, from his sizable pile of hides he used as a blanket, he grabbed a maggot-larva and swallowed it, and did so with a few handfuls. However, today they were especially active, and a few writhed and flailed as they fell.
One of them, very close to being a full Scavaero, ended up hitting the side of Tim's stomach as it fell, cutting through it with its mandibles. He clutched at his stomach area and wondered if after all of that, he would die then. He was near certain of it, and the Lurker's tapping didn't help. Until, it actually did.
Where he felt the wound open, he felt as though someone was creating some kind of bandage there. It was then he realized, the lurker was closing his wound, and the web was healing him and making itself apart of him. It would take a while, but eventually it would feel completely natural.
As the realization of this hit him, a small blinking caught his attention, the window! That little window that distracted him the first day, it was blinking like how a minimized window would when it had a notification.
Being rather surprised when it came back up just from him willing it, he read it again.
Select Your Path Warrior Mage Rogue Cleric
However, another thing caught his eye,
Hive Lord Qualifiers: Lived in a bugs nest/hive for a prolonged period of time, Lived off of primarily insects for a long time, Achieved Symbiosis with an insect or bug.
He selected that option and felt something change about him, but it felt natural somehow. A new screen briefly Popped up, reading,
Base Skills Living Hive 1, Bug Tolerance 3, Bug Resistance 3, Hive Accustomization 2 Earned Skills Symbiosis (Bug) 3, Bug Tolerance 4, Hive Accustomization 3 Bug Tolerance 4 and 3 Will be merged together into Bug Tolerance 7, as will Hive Accustomization 2 and 3 into Hive Accustomization 5.
After this went by, Tim giving it a quick read, a new, more permanent looking screen appeared,
Name, Title Path Tim Allens, Tenacious Hive Lord Hive Size Singular Hive Locations Stomach (Web) Hive Occupants Corpsetaker Arachnid Important Items "Copperwound, The Will To Live (Copper Tuskore Tusk)", Current Skills
Living Hive 1, Bug Tolerance 7, Bug Resistance 3, Symbiosis (Bug) 3, Hive Accustomization 5
Possible Skills Hive Control, Hive Mind, Rapid Recreation, Improve Hive, Dominate Hive, Regal Aura (Bug), Attract Insect, Create External Hive, etc... Remaining Skill Points 65
As he observed this, taking in every detail, the roots came down, a rock falling through. Looking up, having to shield his eyes from the midday sun, he saw perhaps the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, at least it felt as such after living among rotting boar corpses, ant-flies, and maggot-larvae while his only friend or companion of sorts was a spider living in his stomach. When she tossed down a rope that must've been tied to a tree not all that far off.
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When Meifeng looked down at the poor man who fell for the Pitroot Tree's Trap as he managed to barely pull himself up the rope, she felt a massive amount of guilt at not being able to get there earlier. He seemed to be just barely skin and bones with minimal muscle left, his hair was long and shaggy, and his face was also covered in sideburn and beard. Her wonder of how he survived quickly turned to shock and amazement at the sight of both the Tuskore and Roteater Maggot blood, stuck deep into his hands and soaked into his facial hair.
Whoever he was, he had no intention of dying, not anytime soon.