'Holy shit,' he thought as he swiftly dived deep down for the very first time whilst letting go of his hold on the water surface.
The insect that was moving above the surface of the water, as if skiing on ice, stopped where he was and seemed to be waiting for him to reappear.
Unfortunately for it, Lei Yan wasn't going to be outsmarted by an insect. Just as his body was about to reach the surface effortlessly, as he seemed to be naturally buoyant, he controlled his body to dive down once again. He repeated this pattern of movement for maybe five to six times before he noticed that the darkness that was the result of the skiing insect was no more, and he let himself slowly rise tail first. Thankfully, his capacity to stay without air wasn't that poor, so he was able to hold on.
Noticing that the predator had gone to find some other unsuspecting prey he deeply sighed in relief, he then continued to feast on tiny matter randomly drifting along this small pond by the big tree.
It didn't take long for him to feel something new.
Lei Yan felt as if he was suffocated by his own exoskeleton, he was bigger than his outward bones so to speak. Understanding that it was time to molt, which he was waiting for, his body naturally, without waiting for him to do anything, started to secrete a strange fluid that slowly spread through every inch of his tiny exoskeleton and it soon started to weaken its hardness.
After a while, it was so soft that he felt if he just squirmed, he'd get out of it, and that is exactly what happened. The exoskeleton that was previously a part of his body, just like his siphon or tube-like mouth, now felt like an accessory that was holding him back, and the moment he jumped forward, it stayed in its place while he moved on his own.
The moment he got out of it, he felt how different the water impacted him without it. The water felt even colder, and he couldn't help but feel especially fragile even to the tiniest ripple in the water. However, this was all temporary as the moment he rested in this new position, a new kind of fluid enveloped his entire body and slowly hardened around his new, slightly larger body. Of course, here, "bigger" was relative, as it was just a small difference between before and after.
His new exoskeleton quickly hardened, and he continued his feasting journey while moving from one place to the next.
He encountered the skiing insect two more times, but understanding how it hunted, he repeated the same old process as last time and managed to evade it easily. He also molted two other times, making him larger than when he first hatched, and even his speed significantly improved.
Now he could dive even deeper and at the same time squirm his way out of trouble with even more efficiency.
Moreover, now that he had finished his final molting, he could enter the pupa anytime he wanted and finish his metamorphosis into a grown adult mosquito that could fly.
However, before that, he thought of something. Thanks to the temporary talent given by the system for the mission and his human intelligence, his speed of growth was worlds apart from the other larvae mosquitoes that hatched at the same time as him. So, he figured, why not use this opportunity and take advantage of the fact that he was much bigger to kill and eat them and finish one part of the mission because 3 days is way too small of a window to do all of that; even now, a whole night had passed, and the sun would start to rise in a little while.
This realization solidified when he noticed a small mosquito larvae squirming in his direction, blissfully unaware of the impending danger.
For a fleeting moment, he entertained the idea that it's technically his sibling, but he promptly dismissed such sentimentalism as pointless. After all, wasn't it just a mosquito?
Reaching this conclusion, he swiftly moved with a single movement of his tail end, and quickly arrived in front of it and gently bumped into it due to his momentum.
The contrast between them was stark—size, speed, everything set them apart. Yet, after his initial gentle collision, he found himself floating awkwardly close to it, unsure of the next move.
The dilemma he faced wasn't born out of a sudden enlightenment urging him to spare the tiny mosquito. Instead, it was a more practical conundrum—how on earth was he supposed to kill this creature, let alone consume it? His body parts lacked any semblance of sharpness, failing to invoke any imagery of lethality.
'Since I can't penetrate it due to the absence of sharpness, I can only use blunt force to take advantage of the size difference and strength,' Lei Yan thought, and indeed, that was exactly what he did.
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With a precise and controlled swing of his siphon, he managed to hit the other mosquito larvae exactly on the head, propelling it forward. Seeing his attack land exactly how he pictured, he couldn't help but feel a slight tinge of happiness about his mastery over his new body amid all of this chaos he found himself in.
He swiftly followed it, and after observing its still body for a while, he was shocked.
'It died after just a single swing?' he questioned with both confusion and glee. Not wanting to waste any more time, he got close to it and started contemplating how to eat this thing.
'It's definitely bigger than anything I've ever eaten until now, and I don't really have a way to cut it into small, digestible portions,' he slowly contemplated as he swam around it.
One thing that stood out to him from his observation was how towering he was compared to it. His body was three times larger, and considering the size of his stomach, he wondered about the feasibility of consuming it whole, especially with his talent for absorption.
'Should I really try it snake style? Just swallow the whole thing in one single bite? Hm...,' he pondered with some apprehension.
The reason he was somewhat afraid was that he dreaded the possibility of messing up this opportunity, even though he was just a mosquito.
More so, the fear of choking gripped him, and one couldn't blame him, as almost 26 years of human conditioning wouldn't vanish overnight, even in the form of a mosquito. The idea of eating one-third of his body was frightening, although theoretically seemed plausible.
'Ah, let's go for it,' he thought as he went directly to the tail-end of the mosquito larvae and started from there. The reason for starting from that end was because it felt weird to eat it face-first; he was still hesitant, wanting to delay seeing that grotesque face up close, even if only for a couple of seconds.
Unsurprisingly, the whole operation went smoothly, except from a psychological perspective. The fact that he was eating a mosquito in a dirty pond, swallowing it whole, left him feeling slightly nauseous. He was certain that if he had any human physiological organs by now, he'd be vomiting all over.
The moment the whole mosquito larvae entered his stomach, it began to get absorbed at a rate even faster than those tiny bacteria and organisms he found drifting in the water.
Feeling the strangeness operating inside him, he stood still in his bat-like position and closed his eyes to let it proceed smoothly.
After a while, maybe three to five minutes, the entire body of the mosquito was dissolved, and a strange energy spread all over his body, making it even bigger and stronger. Although technically he could no longer grow beyond the limit of his bloodline, he needed to enter a pupa to become a mosquito and access the next stage of growth, this allowed him to reach an unprecedented size for a mosquito of his species.
Sensing the changes in his body, Lei Yan couldn't help but rejoice in his mind; this signified a way to increase his chances of survival by a significant amount.
'This is great; if I eat the other mosquitoes and then enter the pupa stage, once I become an adult mosquito, I'll definitely be way bigger than what I'd have been normally,' he thought with a metaphorical smirk.
However, his little celebration ended as abruptly as it started when he remembered another key detail.
'At the end of the day, these are still larval mosquitoes. Can they still be considered normal mortal-level mosquitoes and thus be accepted by the mission?' he nervously thought, but he had no way to check whether they would work or not.
He tried to recall the interface and the knowledge that appeared in his mind once it disappeared, and bang! The exact same interface appeared, shocking him out of his wits.
[System Integration Mission:
- Kill and consume a mosquito of comparable strength. 1/10
- Kill and consume a mosquito of the Body Forging Realm. 0/1
- Imbibe the crop to full capacity, feasting on the blood of a mortal-level creature. 0/10
- Imbibe the crop to full capacity, feasting on the blood of a creature at the Body Forging Realm. 0/1
(Temporary Talent: Swift Absorption)
Mission Duration: 2 Days 17 Hours.
Failure: Death.
Success: The Insect Sovereign System.
]
The reason he was shocked was that he was always alert to any small movement in his senses, be it sight, hearing, or the new water vibration sense, and the moment something as significant as the interface dominated his field of vision, he was stunned.
'Thank god it's just that,' he sighed in his mind.
Going over the interface once again and seeing the line about comparable strength, he couldn't help but exclaim in joy.
'Nice.'
Previously, he assumed that he'd have to kill and eat normal mosquitoes, which is, of course, a valid assumption because he imagined himself as a big mosquito going through the mission. Fortunately, now he could hunt other larval mosquitoes, and it'd still be counted. Not just that, this would also bring him the tremendous benefit of extra growth before the pupa stage.
However, when he saw the new mission duration and the fact that he still had to go through another growth phase, he couldn't help but be nervous.
'Will I really make it? What if I spend the next 10 hours hunting other larvae, then two days to grow into adulthood? That will leave 7 hours. Can I do the most difficult part in 7 hours?' his mind couldn't help but jump into the very worst scenario, and he started feeling some trepidation in his heart.
His gaze suddenly became firm and decisive as he moved to hunt for other larval mosquitoes, even though the sun was rising and it was absolutely breathtaking, especially from that small point of view but he understood that contemplating the beauty of nature was at the bottom list of his priorities right now.
In no time at all, he spotted another one by the obvious but small siphon hanging out of the water. Swiftly moving towards it, he swung his tails, hitting it directly in the face and killing it. Just as he was about to swallow it whole, he felt a small ripple from the bottom, moving swiftly in his direction.
Understanding the severity of the situation, he quickly squirmed in the opposite direction, attempting to escape, and he succeeded. Just as he was about to celebrate, his eyes glanced at the top, noticing a dark figure that was growing larger by the split second, heading towards him.