'Uhh...' the [Reincarnated] Sorceress groggily awakened and stretched its bulbous, elongated body, only to regret the action almost instantaneously. 'Right,' it thought, as the lingering soreness made itself known, 'that happened.'

'And then this too, uhh...' it weekly glared at the offending blue glow that it had to suffer through first thing in the morning.

Ting.

[Skill [Pain Resistance Lv.2] has levelled up to [Pain Resistance Lv.3]. Continuous damage caused by pain has been decreased by the 3 points.]

Ting.

[Skill [Venom Creation Lv.1] has Levelled up to [Venom Creation Lv.2]. The active time of the venom has been increased to 2 minutes.]

Ting.

[Skill [Moulting Lv.1] has levelled up to [Moulting Lv.2]. The time required for the skill has been reduced by 4 minutes. Total time required: 5 Hours and 56 Minutes.]

Ting.

[Title gained: [Survivor]]

Ting.

[Skill [Survive Lv.1] granted.]

‘Huh…’ When it finally managed to understand the notifications, the [Hungry] pest frowned and shook itself awake, expecting pain and agony. 'Huh. The Skill indeed worked as expected. There's just soreness left now.'

And the neverending fire in its belly. Its curse, [Hungry].

'This is marvellous!' It chittered in joy as its mind finally caught up to the realisation. 'I can use [Moulting] to heal my wounds!' Giddy from the good news, it checked its HP and its mood instantly fell, as if it had bitten into a particularly sour lemon. '[HP: 3/20]. Just what joke is this?'

It took the [Survivor] a few moments before it finally figured it out.

'So, [Moulting] only heals my physical wounds. It doesn't increase my HP?' The caterpillar's body twitched in displeasure and the lemon in its mouth soured a bit more.

'At least, the wounds get healed,' it eventually admitted, though a bit grudgingly. 'The restored HP must be from my regeneration, the [HPR], which is...' it summoned its Status and the lemon in its mouth turned to vinegar. 'Mere 2 HP/Day of regeneration. Great. Wow. Groundbreaking. And as my HP increased by two whole points, I must have blacked out for an entire day. Marvellous. Despite the Skill requiring only six hours. Just marvellous.'

The [Immortal] caterpillar glowered at its Status before dismissing the source of the offending blue light. That done, it slowly wiggled its bulbous body to loosen up the dirt and mud of its little hideyhole.

As crumbs of dirt fell from above, the [Hungry] pest came to a profound realisation. 'There's still shit covering me. My own shit at that.'

The [Reincarnated] Sorceress sighed once again and shook its head in distaste. However, as the earlier soreness reared its ugly head, its exhausted body barely twitched.

Thus, with the little energy it had, the fatigued [Survivor] managed to crawl out of the pit with great effort. 'It's as expected,' it remarked to itself, assessing the nearby plants, 'not a single one survived.'

The [Immortal] caterpillar stared off in the distance for a moment before it let out a sigh. It was a sigh of relief.

'Now that the bait has disappeared, that monster wouldn't come here, would it?' The [Reincarnated] Sorceress reassured itself before shaking its head, 'If only I had my magic... But, no matter. Just a couple of months more. Then I'll evolve. I'll get my magic back then.'

Turning around, the [Hungry] pest glanced at the humongous tree which had been its home since its birth. Its beady eyes travelled up the great length of the tree, and it noped. 'Nope! Not going all the way back up. Nope. Nope. Nope!' There was no way it would be able to return to the top of the tree; not when the creature was this exhausted.

Thus, after pondering over the matter for a moment, the [Hungry] pest just crawled back into the excreta and poison covered cesspool.

‘...how strange.’ It couldn't help but notice as it stepped in. 'This filth isn't as repulsive as I thought it would be. It should be, shouldn't it? When I had been a human, I wouldn't have willingly rested in human shit, no matter the reason. I had had dignity then. I had been a Sorceress, researching the grandest of all secrets- the Soul itself.'

The [Survivor] wiggled to make itself comfortable, still deep in thought. '...none of that matters now, does it? I am but a vermin now. And magicless. What dignity do I have? What pride?'

'...how pretentious,' finally, it scoffed and dismissed the line of thought.

This, of course, was not the thought process of a mortal, but an immortal. But how could that be? The [Reincarnated] Sorceress had been a mortal. So how could its thought process align with that of an immortal?

This oddity was not as trivial as the [Immortal] caterpillar considered it to be.

After all, never before in the history of the Creations and the Realities had such a peculiar situation occurred. Never had mortal and immortal thoughts aligned as such.

Yet, such an oddity had now begun to emerge as a result of a Being's meddling.

But the [Reincarnated] Sorceress neither knew of the meddling nor just how odd its situation was. In fact, even the oddity that it had noticed in its thoughts had been trivialised by its immortal thoughts.

Ignorant of the forces at play, the [Hungry] pest turned back to the notifications with a weary sigh, dismissing them one at a time before it suddenly stopped and tilted its insectoid head. 'A new [Title]? Now, this is interesting.'

Ting.

[Through your Will, you have defied your death. You have survived. Grants the skill, [Survive Lv.1]]

Despite its exhaustion, the offended [Immortal] caterpillar's stubs squirmed in displeasure. 'What does this mean by "my death"? Was I supposed to die there? So soon? At the hands of that bird? What was the point of my reincarnation then?!'

Irritated, it focused on its first new skill, [Survive].

Ting.

[When activated, stops HP and MP from decreasing below a certain limit for a fixed amount of time. Cost: (Total HP)/2. Current Limit of Time: 1 Minute. Current Limit of HP: 1. Current Limit of MP: -]

It read the description once and then reread it, not knowing if it should laugh or cry. 'On one hand, this fixes my HP; effectively, putting a pause on my death. On the other hand, it also eats away half of my HP while limiting it to a mere single point and that too for just a minute.'

The [Reincarnated] Sorceress sighed, and as its emotions changed with each notification, its exhaustion steadily grew, leaving it with no desire whatsoever in figuring out the utility of its new Skill.

Thus, it chose a reaction and cursed. 'What an absolutely fucking piece of shit Skill!'

There was no rhyme or reason to its cursing. It had not even bothered to spend an ounce of energy to figure out the usefulness of the Skill. It cursed at the Skill solely because it felt like it. Cursing made it feel better.

Amidst the new immortal thoughts, the act of cursing became a beacon of its mortal thoughts.

And the unknown war within the creature’s mind continued.

0.0

As the [Reincarnated] Sorceress woke up, its bleary eyes glanced around groggily for a moment before the creature bolted out of the cesspit in a great haste.

Its beady eyes hurriedly searched the surrounding, only to find colossal trees and sharp blades of grass.

Neither was what [Hungry] caterpillar required at the moment.

Crawling through the sea of useless grass blades, the creature took bites from the random things it thought looked edible. But they were nowhere enough.

In the meantime, the more time passed, the more the [Immortal] caterpillar suffered.

Its fragile mind lost focus of everything as it single-mindedly looked for what the [Hungry] pest desired the most.

At that moment, the forest's location and the weather played a great part in getting the [Reincarnated] Sorceress to its goal. The terrain and the available seeds had allowed saplings to grow during the previous season of spring, which had grown during most of the summer season to become short plants akin to shrubs.

The [Immortal] caterpillar spotted one such plant which had thin and long leaves; quite different from the flat and large leaves of its original tree. With its beady eyes shining, the bug crawled towards the plant with unmatched focus.

Now that it wasn't dying of exhaustion, the hunger haunting it -courtesy of the Title [Hungry]- was punishing without remorse for starving itself.

'The great Ghosts help me! Who made such a Title? What's even the point!? What good does it do if I eat nonstop?! Life has more to it than just eating!' It lamented, crawling up the little green plant, whereupon it came across a fresh, thin leaf that looked particularly juicy.

So the [Immortal] caterpillar did what caterpillars are known to do; it bit into the leaf with great zeal.

And almost spat out the first mouthful on reflex.

The leaf was incredibly bitter, leaving its mouth tingling. However, its hunger was just too much for the [Reincarnated] Sorceress to bear. Thus, ignoring the taste, it dug into the leaf with no regrets.

Bite by bite, nibble by nibble the [Hungry] pest devoured the little leaf and moved onto the next one, which pacified the fire raging in its belly and it let out an irritated huff.

But continued eating. It wanted to starve itself out of pettiness but knew better.

With the unstoppable want for food no longer controlling the [Reincarnated] Sorceress' thoughts, the frustrated creature finally turned its attention to the indescribable itch present all over its body. The word, uncomfortable, didn’t even begin to describe the persistent itch.

So not only was the [Immortal] caterpillar was weary and ravenous, but also itchy.

The creature shook itself and tried to move its hands. But it had no hands. It had stubs. Countless of them.

Under its desire, the stubs wiggled in their places, reminding the [Reincarnated] Sorceress of what it had lost. What was dead. What had been erased. What no longer mattered.

Irritation of the likes that it had never felt before rose within the creature as its bulbous, green body rapidly grew hot and began trembling.

The itchiness, the weariness and the hunger didn't help it any and the [Reincarnated] Sorceress smashed its face onto the stalk in misdirected anger.

Smash!

Unexpectedly, the action actually helped as a papery thin membrane, which was stuck to its body like a second skin, split open.

'What's this?' From its eyes and face, some odd greenish-skin-type thingy was peeling off. The [Immortal] caterpillar frowned for a moment, thinking back on all that it had done and what could have caused such an effect.

As it pondered, its beady eyes lit up. '[Moulting]! That's what this is!' It remembered using the Skill after surviving the bird's attack, and that the Skill's description had included something about shedding skin.

Its curiosity satisfied, the [Reincarnated] Sorceress began to thrash around, while rubbing itself against the stalk of the plant with renewed vigour.

Gradually, its efforts bore fruit and the dead skin sticking to its body fell off in bits and pieces. What little that did remain, it pried it off with its jaws.

Once, all the shed skin was removed, the caterpillar almost glowed anew with bright green skin while its black spots seemed to suck in the very light. The shed skin, on the other hand, was sad, dull and papery.

Yet, the [Immortal] caterpillar eyed the exuviate with curious eyes. 'It's just my skin. It should be edible, right?'

Such was the state of its mind that the [Immortal] thought slipped right in, without even alarming the [Reincarnated] Sorceress.

However, a sudden jolt of sharp pain ran down its bulbous body, breaking it out of its stupor. As its last mouthful of leaf pulp fell from its jaws, the [Immortal] caterpillar tried to figure out just what had happened.

Its head jerked around, searching for the cause, when the pain returned and hit it full force, leaving it shivering. Meanwhile, the world began to tilt and its vision went hazy.

As the [Reincarnated] Sorceress desperately sought answers, its beady eyes landed on the leaf pulp that had earlier fallen from its mouth, and its blood ran cold. ‘Oh… no.'

Perhaps the [Hungry] pest should have regretted when it had found the leaves to be bitter. For it was too late to do so now.

‘Poison! I was eating poison!’ At the realization, the [Hungry] pest forgot its hunger. It forgot its fatigue. It forgot its frustration.

It had barely managed to survive its last life-threatening event, and now it had to deal been poisoned.

'Is this because I didn't die to that bird? Does that mean my destiny was to die all along? It couldn't be that, could it?' The [Reincarnated] Sorceress' mind raced with all sorts of thoughts. 'Now is not the time for useless thoughts! Think! Think! What can I do?'

'Damn it! If only I had my magic, this would be a child's play!' Cursing, it thought of other methods. 'Vomiting the pulp? Can caterpillars even vomit? How would I even induce vomit? My stubs don't reach to my mouth, let alone to the back of my throat!'

'First thing first,' the bug let go of the branch, entering free fall.

Unlike its last experience, the [Immortal] caterpillar didn't fall through any shrub or bush to end up bruised. Light as the bug was, combined with the little height of the plant made the fall a nonissue to the creature.

At that moment, another bolt of hot pain race through its bulbous body and the poison hit it with full force.

The [Reincarnated] Sorceress gritted its teeth as pain assaulted it in waves. One after another, wave after wave, agony battered its senses.

Its suffering didn't end.

As the waves passed, the [Hungry] pest's vision blurred and its sense of smell went wonky.

It saw the world move and smelled the odd odour of buttercups and mint. It knew there were neither buttercups nor mints in its vicinity, but that little tidbit didn't help. Its body continued to twitch and shake out of its control.

Eventually, when the convulsions finally died down, the world stopped moving and the scent of buttercups and mints vanished.

The [Reincarnated] Sorceress gasped to breathe, its green body still twitching at odd times. The little stubs holding its weight gave up and the caterpillar fell flat on its belly, completely spent.

‘It’s over. I am alive. I live.' In between gasps and forced breathes, the [Hungry] pest tried to just process everything. 'It's over. It’s finally over. Thank the Great Ghosts it's over. Thank the Great Ghosts for sparing me. Thank you...'

When the [Immortal] caterpillar's breathing eventually calmed down, the creature turned to the poisonous plant and gave it a stink eye. As if, it was the plant's fault for being poisonous. 'Just you wait, I'll use you as firewood once I get my magic back!' It harumphed. 'I'll definitely come back when I evolve'

With a huff, it turned away, crawling out of the poisonous plant's shade. As it stepped into the sunlight, its beady eyes glanced around, searching for the next food source.

However, all the nearby plants had leaves similar to the one that had poisoned it and the [Hungry] bug scowled.

The fire in its belly, although tamed for the moment, would rampage soon enough. And when it finally did so, the [Reincarnated] Sorceress didn't want to be caught unprepared again.

Crawling through the tall grass blades, the [Immortal] caterpillar diligently searched, much as it had done after waking up. The only difference, this time, was that it didn't bite into random grass like it had done the last time.

The [Reincarnated] Sorceress had learnt its lesson.

For the time being at least. If its mental degradation continued, however, then no matter the lesson, the [Survivor] would forget them all. It would be rendered into nothing but a mindless monster.

After exploring quite a bit, the [Hungry] pest's beady eyes shined. It had found a plant whose leaves were similar to the tree it had been born in; large and flat. With its stubs quivering in joy, the bug raced up the plant and dug into the soft, fresh leaves.

As the tasteless juices filled its mouth, the caterpillar let out a sigh of relief. With its tension relived, a thought occurred to the [Immortal] caterpillar. 'Didn't I just have 3 points of HP? After that bone-searing pain, shouldn't I have just died?'

The thoughts made the [Reincarnated] Sorceress' breath hitch and it hurriedly summoned its Status. Only to find not a single point missing. Its HP still was [HP: 3/20], the same as before.

As glad as it was that it had not lost already meagre HP, the [Survivor] titled its head in confusion. Why had its HP not decreased when it had clearly been poisoned?

'Could it be due to [Poison Resistance Lv.5]?' It reasoned. However, the Skill had clearly failed to stop the poison; the lingering twitches were the proof of its suffering.

The [Immortal] caterpillar's numerous stubs squirmed in distress as it summoned the description of the Skill once again.

Ting.

[Poison Resistance Lv.5] [Ability to reduce the effect of poison and delay being poisoned. Decrease the damage of the Poison by the Level of this skill.]

The [Hungry] pests frowned; this was the only Skill that hadn't started at Level 1. The creature focused on it.

Ting.

[Ability to delay being poisoned. Due to being born a poisonous Immortal, the ability starts with a few levels mastered.]

‘Could it be that the poison was incredibly weak with damage below 5 points? Thus it was naturally countered by the Skill?’ It mused. 'But if it were so, then why did the Skill not block the effects?'

The [Reincarnated] Sorceress pondered on the matter as it ate, but couldn't come up with any other explanation for the odd occurrence. 'Perhaps, the Skill doesn't counter effects until it develops resistance to it naturally...'

The [Immortal] caterpillar stopped eating and its countless legs wiggled in displeasure. 'What a dumb flaw!' It cursed. 'Whoever made it was either a moron or intended to make a faulty product. No one intelligent would leave such a stupid loophole!'

With a harumph, the [Hungry] pest resumed eating.

-X-

Within a desolate desert, inside a dilapidated shop, on a simple chair, a youth seemingly slept.

-X-

Status

Name: Unnamed

Race: Immortal

Species: Insect

Vessel: Caterpillar

Level: 15

HP: 5/20 MP: -

HPR: 2/Day MPR: -

Lifespan: 75 days

Titles

[Hungry] [Reincarnated]

Skills

[Crawl Lv.2] [Moulting Lv.2] [Pain Resistance Lv.3] [Poison Resistance Lv.5] [Venom Creation Lv.2] [Survive Lv.1]