As spring began, somewhere deep within the Forest of Crimson Leaves a new generation of monsters opened their eyes and joined the world. Some, like a pair of baby Venom Wyverns, had the luck of parental guidance; others would have to fight for themselves.
Among the monsters that sprung up was a Giant Beetle, though at this point of its lifecycle it would more accurately be described as a Hand-Sized Grub. It broke through its egg with nary a worry but certainly with a great hunger.
[System Added: The Gift of Life]
[Gift: Coalescing]
What an interesting little experience that message was for the grub. The Grand System did not communicate with it in words but through a pure exchange of information. So it knew that [The Gift of Life] was a unique ability that everyone had access to, and it knew that Coalescing meant that the system was still watching to figure out what Gift suited it best.
[System Added: Monstrous Nature]
[Monstrous Nature: Giant Beetle (Tier 1) (Level 1/10)]
[Giant Beetle:
Skills: [Molt (Locked: Requires High Satiation)]
]
This system was distinct for monsters; animals, plants, and fungi did not get access to it; and it allowed them to grow stronger and evolve beyond themselves. Evolution was a concept well ingrained in the Grub's DNA, and it understood it by instinct, not just because the Grand System uploaded the information to its tiny little brain. It had come from a long line of creatures that grew stronger and evolved, after all.
The Grub was interested in the messages and in trying to figure out what they meant precisely, but it was also fundamentally a stupid insect. Smarter than average because it was bigger than a non-monster insect, but not smart enough to really worry about anything but filling its stomach.
Talking about filling its stomach… The grub had hatched nestled against tree roots and started eating now. It had big mandibles at the front with which it could dig through the dirt and bite through the tree roots.
Crunchy!
After a while, it had eaten its fill and decided to satisfy its other curiosities. Like the state of the world and how to evolve. It dug slightly upward and broke through the earth’s crust. The green grass and blue sky both seemed quite tasty to the grub, though its eyes were sadly not perfectly attuned for making out faraway shapes, so green ground and blue sky were all it could really discern.
It could also see the tree it had eaten from rising like a giant in the sky. It wondered about the treasures up top, but when climbing up was unsuccessful and tiring, it decided to go back and eat from its roots again.
Tasty!
It went to pop up again and decided to snack on the grass this time. Blander than the tree, but not too bad. Not too bad at all! It went to walk around, but instincts told it to remain at least somewhat concealed, so it made sure to move around underground between popping up to figure out its surroundings. It discovered that grass also had roots it could eat when it bumped up against some on its journey.
Delicious!
The grub wandered around for a while, eating grass and tree roots, getting no closer to understanding levels until it was found by its first real threat. It seemed like it wasn’t the only living and moving creature around. Plants can’t fight back, Monsters can fight forward.
You see, though the Grub had taken proper care to move underground, it had also popped up frequently and left a trail of holes anyone could follow quite easily. Ah, the foibles of ignorance. If only it had stayed permanently underground through its larval stage, it wouldn’t have gotten in this situation.
Its enemy: A sleek and dark creature about half a meter in length.
The grub couldn’t really discern further details because of its poor eyesight and the like. Really, it was lucky to even discern this much detail since the predator had intended to attack it from behind and kill it before it could do anything. Not particularly honorable, but such is life for Monsters, and for most animals and humans too, if we’re being honest about it. The only reason the Grub had noticed the predator was because it had sensed the ground vibrate ever so slightly and looked around to figure out why. In that aspect, the grub had sharp instincts.
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Those same instincts now warned it that this was an enemy and to prepare itself.
How to prepare itself, though, the grub wasn’t as sure of. The grub, with pincers made for digging through the earth and eating roots, as well as a very soft body, suddenly did not feel prepared for the world at all. The curse of being born to an r-strategy species that favors many offspring in the hopes that some survive rather than a few offspring that were assured to survive.
The predator dived at it, all fur and claws and teeth. The Grub considered retreating, digging down as fast as it could, but it too was a monster, so it balked at its own fear and sprang forward too. Biting with all its force the moment the predator was in reach. It fought relentlessly, though with every bite it delivered, the enemy delivered a slash of its own, and the slashes added up quicker than the bites.
Finally, the expected outcome happened. The Grub, bloody with its own 'blood' and the Predators blood and torn asunder, was swallowed. The grub, clinging to life with all its might, considered its fate. Raged about its fate. It had been happy walking around and eating roots; why did it have to be eaten on its first day of life! It was not content with the knowledge that it had at least grievously wounded the enemy. Not at all.
The throat of the predator did a good job constricting the grub so that it could not even bite at the walls and extract some extra payment. Instead, it slid down into the stomach, where it was forced to deal with the pain of burning acid. Pain overrode blinding anger for a moment, just a moment, then anger was at the forefront of the emotions the grub was feeling again. It thrashed within the acids, biting with all it could, but with most of its blood lost, it did not have the power to pierce through the stomach lining.
But those who struggle in this world often find themselves rewarded. Levels, classes, and special evolutions can all happen for the strugglers, but the simplest mechanic through which they are rewarded is…
[Gift Formed: Not Death Yet!]
What happened next was probably complete bullshit from the perspective of the Shadow Hare, which was already quite unsatisfied with the result of its hunt. Well, turnaround was fair play as far as the Grand System was concerned. As far as the little grub was concerned, too.
It felt its power resurge, flesh that was torn up stitching together, new blood burning through its veins.
The Grub was still within the stomach of the predator, but now that it had the energy to tear through flesh again, the stomach was really quite an advantageous position for it to be in, as long as we ignore all the stomach acid that was eating at the Grub. So, not a great place to stay long term, but the grub had no plans to stay there for long. It bit at the walls with renewed vigor, ripping through them and through the body of the hare which had no way to counter. It did not take long for it to come across the Monster Core of the hare, a crystal the size of a thumb, and it bit at it with all its force.
Crunchy!
Compared to the meat, which the Grub didn’t like at all, the Crystal at least had a root-like texture, even if it did not have a root-like flavor. Not that the Grub hadn’t eaten the meat in a Furious and Ravenous scramble to do as much damage and inflict as much pain to the Predator as possible.
[Killed: Shadow Hare!]
[Giant Beetle: Level 3!]
[Skill Gained: Big Bite!]
[Skill Gained: Omnivore!]
It had won? It had won. What a great day for grub-kind. What a great day for the Grub itself. It had been born, eaten some roots, and now it was even the official world champion ‘fastest solo kill of a higher tier monster’, even if it was just one tier above it. The grub continued eating, quite pleased with its victory. Meat had gotten a more pleasant taste after it acquired its new skills, and though it didn’t quite hit the peaks of a good tree root, it wasn’t bad.
[Skill Unlocked: Molt!]
How nice. The grub dug itself out of the hare, having turned quite round and plump through all the eating. It considered molting immediately, instincts told it to molt as soon as it was in a safe location, but a relentless appetite told it to stay and enjoy the meal first. The appetite won, out and the Grub decided it could take a bit more meat, actually.
Savoury!
Eventually it was stuffed to the point of bursting, so it moved to the closest tree it could find, nestled down between its roots, and started [Molting].
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AUTHORS NOTE:
Not too long before I started writing this I realized I had a small infestation of pantry moths in my house. I tried to catch them in cups and let them out in my garden so that they could go bother someone else, but they were too numerous and dextrous for me to catch. Eventually I settled on killing the moths, which I felt quite bad about. This novel is in dedication to the slain moths, they just wanted to live their lives eating my cereal, and then I killed them…
The protagonist is a Beetle instead of a Moth because I love beetles and insects are basically all the same anyway, right?