The Grub crawled out of the earth, having doubled in size with its first molt so that it was around 20 centimeters now. Its girth, likewise, had doubled. The Grub was hungry, with almost all of its previous energy used up to [Molt] successfully.

It devoured its shed skin quickly, then it smelled around to try and locate the hare carcass it had left behind, and when it couldn’t smell it anywhere, by virtue of the molting process having taken around a day underground, it instead moved towards the sweet smell of trees.

It thought its senses had grown a bit through the [Molting], and vague shapes could be seen in the distance whenever it popped out of the ground to observe its surroundings. (It had yet to discover that this pattern it followed was the main thing giving away its locations to predators.) Looking at those shapes, both bigger and smaller than it was, it wondered if those were other Monsters.

It thought back to the levels it had gained from killing the hare. It did not know if there were less murderous ways to level, so it considered going after the other Monsters to prove its worth, killing them for levels and their flesh.

Of course, it had gotten lucky to survive that first encounter, but the Grub was bigger and stronger now. Better odds, but good odds? The Grub wasn't confident.

Then it remembered how angry it had felt to be hunted when it was just out there doing its best, and its overgrown empathy center decided it would rather not inflict that on others. Without the fear of a failed hunt and a victim that could always burst out of its stomach the same way it had burst out of the hare's stomach, this overinflated sense of empathy would not have been enough to convince it that the herbivore life was the way to go. The two considerations combined did. Well, three considerations, really, the final one being that it was a natural herbivore and preferred the taste of plants.

All that to say that instead of hunting, the Grub searched out the closest tree, ol’ reliable, and started eating. It briefly paused and remembered it had gained a skill! The Grub invoked [Big Bite] and felt energy coursing through its monster core and into its pincers. They slowly started to glow white and began to feel hot. When the Grub was finally satisfied that the skill had reached its apex, it bit into the tree and took a big chunk of the bark away.

Sap dripped down from the top of the newly exposed hole in the tree. The Grub had never seen free-flowing liquids except for blood, but curiosity and instincts made it drink from the sap anyway.

Sweet.

Which the Grub did like, but unlike humans and some other species, it had no real preference for it. The Grub still continued to drink for a while since the sap had a novel flavor not provided by most other plant matter it had tasted. Eventually it went back to nibbling the bark and root before a thought struck its tiny little brain.

I’m bigger now. Can I climb the tree?

A good question. Did its molting provide it with any specialized features that would make tree climbing easier? No. Did this stop the Grub from hoping? Also no. It spent some time trying to climb up. It was desperate to climb up. It wanted to taste the sky like it had tasted the ground.

Alas, its efforts were in vain. Worse than in vain, really, since it heard a sound coming from up above and spotted a rapidly descending figure approaching it. Its efforts had attracted a predator.

The Grub's instincts were telling it that this was an Enemy and to do what it had done to the hare: attack. Attack with all its heart. Despite these instincts, the Grub had hopes that this Monster had embraced the Herbivore lifestyle too and was just approaching to be friends. The Grub decided to try and communicate. It stood up high and wiggled its most friendly wiggle.

Bad mistake. The Bird had no interest in friendship. It had interest in a rich source of proteins eaten the world over. It pecked at the Grub, and the Grub did its best to jump to avoid this, but it was not a particularly fast creature and got hit.

Oh, it's going to be like that!?

The same section of its brain in charge of optimism and delusional hopes was also in charge of producing unending rage as those hopes were dashed. Now it was filled with that rage, and it would make sure the Bird would come to regret its decision.

Unlike the Shadow Hare the Grub had fought earlier, the Bird wasn’t even that much bigger than the Grub. It was, however, an adult to the Grub's child and knew the proper hunting strategy to beat and eat grubs: use its superior mobility to peck the Grub from behind and above. Nice and safe.

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Fly in range, [Quick Peck], fly out of range.

The Grub tried to spin around fast enough to bite the Bird whenever it was in range, but it was consistently too slow. The few bites that reached the Bird caught nothing but feathers. What was a grub to do about an onslaught like this?

It tried to activate [Big Bite] and discovered it had a cooldown. This was the Grub's first discovery of cooldowns in general. Suddenly it feared its Gift would have a cooldown too, and it had really been banking on [Not Death Yet] keeping it alive forever.

Instead, it had to contend with the notion that it might not even live for three days.

The fires of rage were being stoked real deep inside, giving the Grub a burst of energy so big that the next time the Bird came in its range, it snapped towards the Bird with a new personal acceleration record...

And missed. Oh, the speed had certainly startled the Bird. Startled it enough that it decided not to attack, and it instead flew back up out of the Beetle’s range. The Bird's strategy was all about safety, after all.

The Grub had really expected the speed burst to be enough. The unending depths of its rage was how it had killed the Hare. Well, really, its unending rage had gotten it reduced to just a head and eaten, and then the Gift System had helped it get the win.

Would the Gift System help it again? No, it didn’t think it would.

A few pecks and pointless attempts at counterattacks later, the Grub had come to a conclusion. It was all about timing. It needed to land its hit just as the Bird landed its attack. And when it landed the hit, it needed to grab hold and make sure the Bird couldn’t escape.

Its first few attempts at this failed miserably, but it realized that the Bird must be using an attack like [Big Bite], as it occasionally saw the white glow on the Bird’s beak, and decided to try and use the glow as its sign to snap with all of its power and speed.

Wait. Wait. Wait. Glow! Attack!

The [Quick Peck] landed on the Grub’s face. The Grub ignored the pain and delivered its most successful counterattack yet. Its pincers had caught the Bird’s neck. The Bird tried to fly away, but the Grub would not let go.

The Grub had discovered the Grapple.

It got lifted into the air with the Bird. The Grub’s dream of flight was achieved, though it had no time to be happy about it. It continued to bite down, instinctively channeling its power through its core, like it had done when it activated [Big Bite], and this power allowed its pincers to crush through flesh and shatter the fragile bones of the Bird’s neck.

[Killed: Fulcrum Sparrow!]

Grubs: 1, Birds: in the millions. Could this be the start of the greatest comeback in Monster vs. Monster history? Probably not, but at least the Grubs had scored a point and could stand tall with dignity again.

Dignity, as it fell 3 meters down, and cried out in pain at the landing. The Sparrow's pecks had already caused countless small wounds to cover the Grub and the fall cracked its exoskeleton further. It really felt like a last little fuck you from the Sparrow.

The Grub rose and waited for a level notification. It was disappointed that none popped up. It had to admit that compared to bursting out of a hare’s innards, this fight was less impressive, but it had invented (at least from the Grub’s perspective) a whole new branch of combat. Well, levels would come with time and more kills, it was sure.

It considered whether it was dedicated enough to its Herbivore lifestyle to not eat the sparrow, but eventually decided that eating predators was fair play by its standards and got to work. Light yet Crunchy bones, savory meat, and a somewhat spicy monster core. A true delicacy for the palate.

Somewhere, a pair of sparrow chicks would have to be raised by a single mom. If only their dad hadn’t challenged the rising star of the monster world. The Grub didn’t know this, and even if it had known, it wouldn’t have acted particularly differently, but if it had known, it would have at least been quite sad about this.

Instead, it just wondered if it would ever find like-minded creatures as it slurped down the remains of the Bird. It wondered if it would even be able to communicate with them if or when it did find them. Would they understand the improv dance? Would they attack it out of fear of being attacked?

It briefly considered its ways of communicating. It had no method of vocalization. No, it had no concept of vocalization or sound-based communication. The Giant Beetles communicated through hormones and smells. Sadly, this was a purely interspecies communication method. It was also purely driven by instinct, and the Grub's pursuit was driven by intellect, so it settled on body language once again. Dance.

Once it finished pursuing that thread of thought and eating its fill from the sparrow, it moved away from the mess it had produced to a safer place and practiced some dance moves that it thought appeared non-threatening. It did so for a while and discovered two styles of dance: the wiggle and the thrashing. Of the two, the wiggle seemed friendlier.

[Giant Beetle: Level 4!]

[Skill Gained: Fast Roll!]

The grub was baffled by the notification. It had assumed that killing other monsters was how it leveled, but apparently dancing qualified it for levels too. It was relieved that a life of pacifism didn’t mean it was cursed to remain weak forever.

The realization that it could level from more than just killing and dancing would come later.

The Grub danced. It cycled between eating, rolling to the next eating spot, and dancing. As it danced, it wished that one day it would find friends.

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