Such fast pace motion brought a bout of excitement to my mind: a sense of life, a passion of moving even faster. Having not run for I can’t tell how long, this motion of my legs, the pressure of air against my face, the blur of my vision, was the most amazing thing I remember.

I didn’t know who helped me, but the room they had created was enough for me to slip right through the circle of my haters and toward the world which I didn’t know anything about.

The tunnels were narrow yet spacious at the same time. I saw my brethren -giant black ants- all moving in different directions, yet not colliding without purpose. Though I say the tunnels were narrow, I still had enough space to run through the crowd, while they walked on the walls and even the roof if they had too. Their ability to make precise movement even when moving on the walls amazed me. I wanted to try it too, but the pressure from the horde of monstrous ants a while ago; trying to pin me down for some reason, kept me focused and moving.

The tunnel was full of clamour. There was a sense of purpose in the air; a clustered excitement which was jovial at times and dreadful at others. It was a mysterious place I found myself and I was glad for some reason. The tunnel I noticed was inclining at a shallow degree and right when I was thinking of what might there be at the end of the line, I, I mean we, reached what to me seemed like a path going up and outside.

The hole at the end of the tunnel seeped light into the dark space filling it with emotional warmth. I wanted to go out to see the word from an ant’s eyes, but there was also hesitation in my mind. I was reluctant to move onto the wider ground alone, but soon my see the world at large came true when the crowd moved and I -who didn’t know how to run on walls- got stuck between them and could only follow them to outside. I tried to get away at first, but the excitement of seeing such fascinating creatures moving together toward a target made me anticipate and I ended up following them voluntarily in the end.

And let me say this, the thing called curiosity is a dangerous feeling to have. It does more harm than good, but I didn’t know this at that time. So, sighing, I stopped resisting and went with them. And while I did so, I checked the other skills I had gotten while I was running away from the mob, and the one I had received while being pushed from behind.

Skill: Roll gained.

[It’s a simple maneuver. But a simple roll can save one’s life.]

[Lv-1/10; +1Dex./lv]

-If you find yourself stuck between a sink or swim situation and you have no choice other than to jump or die, then don’t jump straight down; roll. – Senior Eight legged.

Skill: Breathing gained.

[It is not a skill per se, yet your affinity to skills allows its development.]

[Drastically improves your breathing.]

[Lv-1/10; +.1% health Reg./lv]

-If only those rascals hadn’t destroyed the forests. – A weakened White Elf.

And it was already at level 3 for some reason.

Skill: Push resistance gained.

[Increases your resistance to being pushed around. You will eventually fall.]

[Lv-1/10; +.1Constitution/lv]

-Can you get up? - T1, the training doll.

I watched the whole battalion of ants calmly moving in ten columns of uncountable numbers and strategically walking out of the hole from where the light was coming. While the others were disciplined and uniform, there was me who, well I’ll say I was disturbing their whole formation alone.

For a second we were inside the cave, and then, we were out. And I was mesmerized.

The sun unfurled like a flower of red, blue and yellow petals made up of transparent crystals confining the colors amidst them. The rays of light penetrated past humongous blades of grass, lightening the ground which consisted of hundreds upon thousands of piled up beads of unknown origin, and they shone in a multitude of colors upon contact with the light. I couldn’t see very well through my hexagonal eyes lenses which gave me only a hazy sense of vision, but even they couldn’t hinder the orgy of colors to tighten my chest and fill my whole self with a feeling of fulfillment.

And the sound of a bell ringing straight in my head broke my immersion, making me slightly perplexed.

[Skill: Admirer gained.]

[It takes intelligence and wisdom of a bright being to see the wonders.]

[Lv-1/10; +.05Intelligence/lv, +.05Wisdom/lv]

-It’s not every day that you see something which truly makes you wonder about the beauty of everything surrounding us.

I was dazzled, but not lost. I had found a purpose in life. Though the oppression of some minutes ago wasn’t forgotten, the world unfurling in front of my eyes was wondrous enough for me to forget about that crowd for some seconds, maybe some minutes even.

But while I was standing still, capturing the shine of pearls settled on the green fanning blade of grass, and watching the beads under my feet reflect awe aspiring colors, my brethren moved in a single file toward a destination I didn’t know anything about.

I had no saliva in my mouth, but I gulped at the thought of following the other ants and seeing where their struggle ends. To see how great the sky would look from beyond the shade of grass, ferns and shrubs.

I wanted to see more.

The world was right in front of my eyes, wide and open, and I forgot about all that had happened inside that closed, dark room. And I forgot about all the dangers which could be lurking in the shade, under the ground or in the sky, and started blindly following the others. Just to sate my curiosity.

We walked and walked and walked for minutes and minutes we walked, and soon there was a wall in front of us. It was a tree; a tree of gigantic proportions. It was huge. Even the word huge doesn’t do justice to how big and wide this thing was.

I didn’t know at this time how dangerous a place this was and neither did I see the tensed bodies of my fellow comrades because I was a naïve little newcomer who was admiring the nature to its fullest. If I had the skill to back my curiosity then I would have sensed the new odor of warning chemicals in the air, but I wasn’t skilled enough and neither did I care.

The walk hadn’t been for nothing though. I gained two new skills during his time and vision leveled up to two. I still hadn’t come to terms with how easily I was gaining and leveling skills, but it was how it was. Maybe I was dealt a better hand than most, so I took it up at face value not knowing or trying to understand what I could mean in the long run. Now, the new skills were interesting. While one was just stamina preservation which decreased my stamina consumption by .1%/lv, the other was a different kind of interesting. According to its information, it should help me get a better view of the world, but I have to say, it is a very offensive skill.

[Skill: Stamina Preservation gained.]

{Vision has leveled up to 2}

Skill: Analyze gained.

[Lets you analyze your surroundings. To use, concentrate on the hologram hovering over the object of concern.]

[Lv-1/10; +.5Int/lv, +.5Wis/lv]

-Nothing is perfect. No one knows everything. This skill tells everything, but it’s not perfect. – The Sage.

It is an interesting skill, no doubt; but as the description said, it’s not perfect. I tried to test it and concentrated on the hologram hovering right in front of the tree and it zoomed up to my face telling me this,

That's a tree, you dumb fuck!

It was an enigma for me to solve with the little intelligence I had. I knew it was a tree, but why the hell did it have to be so offensive? I didn’t know that.

Anyways, I must have looked like a newbie and out of focus, because while I was lost in the contraptions of my mind, trying to solve this puzzle, I heard a voice calling me.

“Don’t stop. Go. Climb. Hurry.”

I might have felt a little too reclusive or repulsive even to answer a voice as hard as that on any other day, but today being my first day at the job, I sloppily answered back with, “Huh! Me? Are you talking to me?”

And a plethora of notifications exploded in front of my eyes telling me I had done something amazing all of a sudden, while I myself had only spoken or replied.

[You have found one of the secrets of the Insect world.]

[You don’t have a level to grow your racial skill.]

[Your ability to speed up skill gain has bypassed the requirement to open racial skill “Talk”]

[Racial Skill: Talk gained.]

[There was once a time when insects couldn’t talk. But those were different times. Now on the world of Monsteralia, the insects have evolved enough to talk without using chemical signals. Please remember, the insects still use wavelengths to talk, and they need antennae’s to send and receive these signals. So try not to lose any.]

[No levels.]

[The ability to hold conversation depends on intelligence and your language skills. It is advised to increase your intelligence to at least ‘0.6’ for intelligent and wisdom to ‘0.4’ to talk.]

[Skill: Ant language gained.]

{It’s the language of ant.}

“Holy shit!” I exclaimed and suddenly heard laughter in my mind. I could see that the ant in front of me who was ‘talking’ to me wasn’t laughing, but the cackles in my mind were true and vibrant. The now soft and jubilant voice cackled uncontrollably as if they had heard something really funny. And I was puzzled.

“You new?” The voice asked, and I answered with silence. It was all too much for me to take in. The skills and system were already too hard to digest, but this, insects with the ability to talk, it was too much. I froze.

It turned out, I didn’t know about the kind of world I was in at all. Maybe there was more to being an insect then I knew.

“Come. Don’t stop.” The rugged looking ant said and started following the others.

I once again gulped without any saliva in my mouth and thinking about all the possibilities the system held for insects, I started following behind him. It was the time when I still didn’t know what it truly meant to be an insect. I was young and naïve; an old soul in a new chamber, trying to take in everything which the world had to offer.

I followed the others and started climbing the tree. I won’t say it was easy per say, but the climb wasn’t difficult at all. If I was still in my old body than climbing such a height would have given me the runs. My legs would have turned to jelly for all I’m saying, but in this world, the system had a hard grip on everything. My stamina didn’t fall as quickly as it should have thanks to that preservation skill, while the new skills I gained while climbing simply made it easier to move. As I said, I won’t say it was easy, but I wouldn’t say it was difficult either.

So, the skills I gained were: climb, stamina regeneration, and movement, which was the result of Walk and run joining together.

Skill: Climb gained.

[Everyone can walk. Some can even run. But not everyone can climb.]

[It increases your ability to climb on walls and rough surfaces.]

[Lv-1/10; +.1strength/lv.]

[Agility increases by 1%/lv when you are climbing.]

-Oh! You are a mountain? So what? I’ll climb over you. – Bubble, The Mountaineer.

Skill: Stamina regeneration gained.

[Every time you move, you consume a bit of your stamina.]

[Increases your stamina regeneration by .1 per hour.]

[Lv-1/10; +.1/hr/lv]

-Walk, walk, walk some more, walk toward the other shore. Walk until you can walk no more. Then fall down and release a roar. – Song of the 9th battalion, ???.

{Stamina preservation has leveled to 2}

{Walk and Run are joining to form Movement.}

Skill: Movement gained (Tier-1*).

[You started walking when you were born and then you learned to run. You felt the wind's resistance, but you didn’t stop, and now you know there’s more to speed than simply running. ]

[Lv-1/10; +.2agility/lv, +.02attack speed/lv.]

{Every skill has a tier it belongs to, but some skills are special. Though they don’t have enough strength to be considered a skill of a higher tier, they are strong enough to be considered a powerhouse among the skills of their own tier. Movement is one such skill. Though it only has 10 levels and is considered a First Tier skill the gains it provides are stronger than any tier 1 skill.}

I thoroughly clenched the bark with my feet in excitement. When I had understood that ‘I was an ant’ there had been a disappointment in my voice, a longing for something greater. I had wanted to do things which I hadn’t done in my past life. I didn’t know what they were, but I knew that I had committed suicide, and a person doesn’t kill himself if he was happy. So I had wanted to live a greater life- To restart as an individual who would storm through all hardships and come out as a better being.

But when I had come to know that I was being born as an ant those expectations had crumbled like a sand castle. Yet, this system which had become a part of my new world was giving me hope; hope that I could live a greater life as an ant too.

Maybe, with the systems help if I try hard, I could end up in a future where no ant has ever stepped before. These were my thoughts and they were the foundation of my success in the future.

But when I seriously tried to use the system for my good, it turned out it wasn’t as easy as I was thinking it would be.

I noticed a hologram on the heads of the other ants and in my excitement concentrated on it to see what [Analyze] had to say about my brethren and it said,

That's your sister you pervert.

I looked away. If I had cheeks, they would have been red and swollen by the slap. It was at this moment I understood, [Analyze] was like a sword with no handle on it. Anyways, we climbed the tree for like ten minutes and during this time I finally saw how high up we were. The blades of grass which had looked like swords piercing the sky from the ground now looked meek in comparison. Hell! Even the mound which I had thought should be tens of miles away could be seen from up there and it really wasn’t that far. I gained another skill called [Map] during this time.

Skill: Map gained.

[Allows you to record travelled locations in a system map.]

[Lv-1/10; +.1Wisdom/lv]

-Sometimes, a little travel makes you wiser than reading 1000 books would.

But no matter what I say about my perception of the things and about their sizes, the world looked marvelous from up there. It looked open. Like I had all of this space to roam, but my body was so small that it was annoying. I felt desperate to go into the wild and fell its treasures with my own hand, but my naïve and sheltered mind shattered by the cruelty and dangers of this world when a strong gust of wind invaded amidst our file.

I didn’t hear the leaves rustle due to the wind, but I definitely saw them breaking from their roots and dancing away into the unknown. It was the exfoliation of my adventurous self when I saw the wind picking up a few of my brethren and taking them away with itself. And no one did or could do anything about it.

The system chimed during this time, notifying me of my new skill gained, but I was too in shock to even notice its projection in my mind. The blue screens come and went like the breeze which also calmed down after decreasing our numbers. It appeared like a devil to take my fellow gatherers away, and it stopped after getting its fill.

The skills I gained during this horrifying ordeal were [Wind resistance] and [Iron grip], which increased my strength and agility in wind by .1 per level. While [Fear resistance] and [vision] leveled up to 2 and 3, but what did I care about the system when the feebleness of my current body was thoroughly imbedded into my mind by nature’s simple play.

I tightened my grip and somehow held on. My iron grip made it impossible for me to fall and made the bark in my grasp screech out in pain, but its crackle only made me angrier at how helpless I was to a simple wind.

Could I have done anything? What if the wind had picked me up rather than those helpless ants? What would I have done? With my mind filled with questions like these -questions I had no answer to- I started walking; following the others like the fool I was. A fool who thought the world at large was a playground for him to enjoy. Knowing little of the death which every corner, every dark hole, every sweet smelling fruit held in its sound call.

My heart pounded at the thought of being blown away and falling down, but I followed the others with my mandibles clenched, and soon, we were at the end of our journey- a journey of which I was just a guest, not a traveler.

Steady gusts of wind trashed us en route, but their onslaught is a lot easier to handle once you understand their timing. During our walk, my skill [Climb] leveled to 2, and I felt a little stronger than before. I noticed the other ants walking to and fro this humongous ball of red which freely hung from the branches. Then one of the stronger looking ants with a multicolored Exoskeleton and wings on its back, [Talked] to me and told me, “Quickly take a bite and go back before the yellow stingers come.”

He spoke fluently without any breaks making me understand the difference between a soldier and a real ant warrior.

Then I noticed the other ants taking a big bite off the red ball and going back the way we had come. Curious about the red ball, I [Analyzed] it for better understanding while hoping that it wouldn’t pull out my leg, and it gave me an answer.

{Analyze has leveled up to 2}

[[Sweet apple. It’s sweet.]]

“Oh…” Feeling helpless I went to help the others by doing my fill but saw that most of the apples were crowded with tens of ants standing in line for their turn. Some of the apples even had hundreds of ants standing calmly in files waiting for their turn. I had a sense of duty, sure, but I wasn’t going to wait in line, so I started looking around for a better spot and found one some distance away.

{Iron grip leveled up to 2}

My skill leveled up again. It seemed and really was way too easy. It filled me with confidence for some reason. Again, like how the crowd in the tunnel had made me forgot about what had happened back in my birth room; the excitement of being a clever ant who was going to farm an apple which no one was going toward filled me with pride.

When I got closer to it I found that it was not red like the other apples, but black and shriveled. Still, curious and excited as I was, I took a bite out of it and ate it, unfortunately. It was sour and salty. I wasn’t sure how anyone could eat this, and then as its bitter taste reached past my throat, my stomach started burning.

{Absorption has leveled up to 2}

*Ting*

Skill: Poison resistance gained.

[It is advised to not drink poison to increase your poison resistance.]

[Lv-1/25; +.5Constitution/lv, +.5Endurance/lv]

{Poison resistance has become lv2.}

The burning sensation grew from my stomach and filled my whole body. First, my legs shriveled and stopped moving, then my vision turned hazy, and in the end, everything turned black.

Then only the sound of my poison resistance leveling u remained continuously ringing in my mind before even that stopped and I lost conscious.